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GOPYRlGHT DfcPOSIT 




I 



D, L. MOODY 



AND HIS WORK 




REV, W; H. DANIELS, A.M, 



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SOLD ONLY BY SUBSCRIPTION. 



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HARTFORD : 
AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by W, H. 
Daniels, m the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washin^tojo. 



I 

PUBLISHER'S ANNOUNCEMENT. 



In view of the earnest desire of Mr. Moody to escape per- 
sonal notoriety, the first two chapters of this book, as published 
in the English Edition — having reference to his early life — 
have been revised and brought within the smallest compass 
consistent with a fair record of essential facts. In other por- 
tions of the book, some matters relating to the personal life 
of Mr. Moody have also been omitted, and others connected 
with his evangelical labors substituted. Several new engrav- 
ings and much matter have been added, embracing Mr. Moody's 
Farewell Sermon at London, which materially enhance the 
interest of the book. All of the facts and incidents regarding 
Mr. Moody and his work, which the volume now contains, are 
of the author's own knowledge, or have been related to him 
by the personal and intimate friends and co-laborers of Mr. 
Moody, but not by Mr. Moody himself, as the latter feels it 
his duty to abstain from any participation in giving this form 
of publicity to matter connected with himself — however grati- 
fying and profitable the information thereby conveyed might 
be to the thousands of Christian sympathizers throughout 
the land — or in any other way doing that which might give 
ground for the slightest suspicion that he is directly or indi- 
rectly interested in the publication, sale, or profits of this or 
any other book. The Publishers have therefore endeavored to 
remove from the pages of the volume everything which could 
in any way give cause for such comment on Mr. Moody, or con- 
flict with his wish to escape personal notice, 



INTRODUCTION; 
By Rev. C. H. Fowler, D.D., LL.D., 

PRESIDENT OF THE NORTH-WESTERN UNIVERSITY. 

THE best teachers of humanity are the lives of 
great men. 

As, in the nature of things, it is true that " wher- 
ever McGregor sits, there is the head of the table," 
so wherever there is a McGregor, he is sure to have 
something to tell us. 

Men become great only by representing some pro- 
found, productive, forceful idea. 

Things in this world go by majorities ; and each 
man has dominion just in proportion as he carries the 
majority under his own hat and coat. A man with a 
great truth in him has only to bide his time, and the 
multitude will come to sit at his feet and learn of him. 
If the centre of gravity falls without his base, no 
matter how high he is, he topples over into disorder 
and obscurity : if the centre of gravity falls within 
him, he stands, a way-mark for mankind. 

Truths, to be felt, must be incarnated. 

The eternal purposes of salvation were moving in a 
plane out of our sight: God incarnated them in a 



INTRODUCTION. 



Man, and thus brought them within range of our 
vision, our sympathy, and our faith. 

The Bible is largely made up of biographies ; and 
men see the value of faith and righteousness by see- 
ing the men who believed and obeyed. Abstractions 
are feeble ; but, when a man causes things to come 
to pass, by studying him we find out some great 
secret of power. 

Truths need bodies ; therefore God puts them into 
men, that they may have feet to run, hands to strike, 
and elbows to crowd their way to the front. They 
must have personality, outline, experience ; then they 
reach and move us. 

Religions which depend upon argument are failures. 
A religion, to be aggressive, must be experimental : 
men must be something and do something by means 
of it, which would be otherwise impossible ; then they 
become both rhetoric and logic — persuasion and 
proof. 

D. L. Moody is one of the men who stand for 
great truths. The study of his life and work will help 
the world to believe in a Divine Redeemer, and in 
the supernatural power of saving grace. 

May God give this book a million readers, and 
many converts to Christ ! 

C. H. Fowler. 

Evanston, lit., May ist, 1875. 



PREFACE. 



THIS record of the life and work of D. L. Moody, 
the American evangelist, who, with his sweet- 
voiced companion, Mr. Sankey, has made such a 
deep impression upon "the Christian world, is a work 
b^th of love and duty. 

It is almost entirely from original materials, ob- 
tained from first sources, by the author in person ; 
who was, for years, a neighbour of Mr. Moody in 
Chicago, both before and alter the great fire. 

Learning the plan and purpose of this volume, some 
of his relatives, as well as many of his best friends 
both in America and Europe, have gladly adopted 
it as the medium through which to correct sundry 
wrong impressions ; and of publishing such informa- 
tion as, in their judgment, would least conflict with 
his desire to avoid mere personal notoriety ; at the 
same time, placing before the public such an account 
of his early life and work as might properly be 
demanded concerning a religious teacher so widely 
known and trusted. 



PREFACE. 



Having finished the record in America, the author 
took ship for England ; where, in the midst of the 
great London revival, the account of that signal work 
of grace has been prepared. 

In order that this volume might be more complete, 
the author has made a tour of the chief cities 
where Messrs. Moody and Sankey have laboured ; 
with a view to learning, not only the facts concerning 
those wonderful services, but also the results which, 
thus far, have followed them. 

It has been presumed that the Church and the 
world would like to know how these evangelists have 
been brought out and trained for their mission, by 
the providence and grace of God ; and what are the 
real sources of their power. A grouping of the leading 
facts and incidents of this great awakening, exhibit- 
ing it in some degree of unity, would, doubtless, also 
be acceptable. To meet these wants, and to add a 
helpful volume to the literature of Christian work, has 
been the author's prayerful and earnest endeavour. 

If it is found to be somewhat out of the usual style 
of religious portraiture, let it also be kindly borne in 
mind, that the purpose has been to make it as nearly 
like its subject as a book can be like a man. 

It should also be distinctly stated, that Mr. Moody 
is in no way responsible for the preparation of this 
book ; and that neither he, nor any of his family, have 
any interest whatever in its sale. 

River Forest, Chicago, April 2%th, 1875 ; and W. H. Daniels. 
14, Queen Square, Bloomsbury, London, July 12th, 1875. 



CONTENTS 



PART I. 

CHAP. PAGE 

I. THE BOY IS FATHER TO THE MAN .... 3 

II. OUT INTO THE WORLD, AND UP INTO THE CHURGH l6 

III. SMALL BEGINNINGS IN MISSIONARY WORK . . 28 

IV. THE NORTH MARKET MISSION 41 

V. INCIDENTS OF THE WORK AT THE NORTH MARKET 

MISSION 56 

VI. MOODY JOINS THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSO- 
CIATION. — THE END OF HIS BUSINESS CAREER . 76 
VII. THE WAR COMMITTEE.— CAMP AND FIELD . .91 

VIII. MR. MOODY'S CHURCH 103 

IX. FARWELL HALL 121 

X. MR. MOODY BECOMES THE APOSTLE OF THE YOUNG 

MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION . . . . 1 34 

XI. THE SECOND FARWELL HALI I47 

XII. MR. MOODY'S CONVENTION WORK . . . . 1 59 

XIII. BIBLE STUDY AND BIBLE WORK . . . . 1 74 

XIV. THE HOME AND THE TABERNACLE . . . 196 
XV. MOODY AND HIS CO-LABOURERS .... 208 



PART II. 

I. EARLY HISTORY OF MR. SANKEY .... 229 

II. MAKING A BEGINNING.— YORK AND SUNDERLAND . 240 

III. THE BREAKING OF THE CLOUD. — NEWCASTLE . . 253 

IV. MOODY AND SANKEY IN SCOTLAND . . . .266 
V. THE WORK IN SCOTLAND CONTINUED . . . 280 



CONTENTS. 



PART II. — C07itinued. 

CHAP. PAGE 

VI. WORK IN SCOTLAND CONTINUED — GLASGOW AND 

THE NORTH 292 

VII. THE WORK OF GRACE IN IRELAND.— BELFAST, LON- 
DONDERRY, DUBLIN . . . . * .311 
VIII. RETURN TO ENGLAND. — MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, 

BIRMINGHAM, LIVERPOOL 329 

IX. THE LONDON REVIVAL 353 

X. GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD 382 

XI. NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK .... 395 
SERMONS : — 

MR. MOODY'S ADDRESS ON THE PENITENT THIEF . 416 
MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON "THE BLOOD". . . 424 

POPULAR EXCUSES 434 

THE PROPHET DANIEL, IN MR. MOODY'S VERSION . 448 
WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED . . . .465 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PART I. 

D. L. MOODY, PORTRAIT . 
THE OLD FARMHOUSE AT NORTHFIELD 
VIEW FROM THE OLD HOMESTEAD . 
THE OLD HOME IN 1 875 . 



PAGE 

Frontispiece. 

To Face 3 

12 

15 



SCHOLARS AND TEACHERS, NORTH MARKET MISSION SCHOOL 44 

MR. MOODY'S MISSIONARY PONY 83 

THE TABERNACLE. CHICAGO 202 

MR. MOODY'S NEW CHURCH, CHICAGO .... 224 



PART II. 



IRA D. SANKEY, PORTRAIT .... 

FREE CHURCH ASSEMBLY HALL, EDINBURGH . 
FAREWELL MEETING AT GLASGOW . 
EXHIBITION HALL, DUBLIN .... 
MEETING IN AGRICULTURAL HALL, ISLINGTON 
PREACHING IN THE OPERA HOUSE, HAYMARKET 
EXTERIOR OF CAMBERWELL HALL . 
INTERIOR OF CAMBERWELL HALL . 



229 
268 

305 
316 

357 
368 
376 
38i 



PART I. 

D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 
CHAPTER I. 

THE BOY IS FATHER TO THE MAN. 

A CERTAIN family Bible, in an old farm-house 
in Northneld, Massachusetts, has the following 
record : — 

"Edwin Moody was born November 1st, 1800. 
Betsy Holton was born February 5th, 1805. Were 
married January 3rd, 1828." 

Both the Moodys and the Holtons were old families 
in the little mountain town. The latter were among 
the first settlers of the " plantation of Northfield," 
which was purchased of the Indians in 167.3, an d laid 
out by a committee of the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts, of which committee William Holton was a 
member. This man was of English descent, born in 
the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and from him 
Betsy Holton is a lineal descendant of the fifth gene- 
ration. 

Of the nine children (seven sons and two daughters) 
born of this marriage, Dwight Lyman was the sixth, 
born on the 5th of February, 1837. 

On the 28th of May, 1 841, his father died. In the 
morning of that day he was at his usual work — that 



4 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

of a mason ; but feeling a pain in his side, caused 
by over-exertion, he went home to rest At about 
one o'clock in the afternoon he felt the pain sud- 
denly increasing, staggered to the bed, fell upon his 
knees beside it, and in this posture of prayer death 
seized upon him, before any one knew he was seriously 
ill. 

All that was left to the widow for her support was 
the little home on the mountain side, with an acre or 
two of land ; and even this was encumbered with 
debt. Of her seven children the eldest was but thir- 
teen years of age ; and a month after her husband's 
death another boy and girl were born. 

Some of her worldly-wise neighbours advised her 
to give away or bind out her children, all except the 
twin babies; but this she was determined not to do. 
God had endowed her with unusual strength both of 
body and mind, and, trusting in Him, she bravely 
lifted her burden of poverty and toil, and carried it 
patiently, hopefully, and at length cheerfully, until 
the little ones were able to help her bear it, and at 
last to fill her hands with plenty as they had filled 
her heart with love and care. 

Her brothers, in Boston, helped her to pay the 
interest of the mortgage on her home, the eldest 
boys helped to take care of the little farm, the mother 
took care of the house and the children, and God 
took care of them all. 

The minister of the parish, Rev. Oliver Everett, 
was a faithful shepherd to this little flock. From the 
first he counselled the widow not to part with the 
children, but to keep them together as best she 



DOCTRINES AND DOINGS. 



could; to trust in God, and to bring them up for 
Him : promising to help her in their education, and, 
if need be, in their support. 

Pastor Everett was a Unitarian. It must however 
be borne in mind that, in those days, the name had 
not become associated with all sorts of heresies, as at 
present. His differences with his orthodox neighbours 
were mostly concerning certain points of speculative 
theology. He believed in the Bible as the inspired 
word of God, in Jesus Christ as the saviour of all sin- 
ners who would try to save themselves, in the Sab- 
bath, and in the Church and its sacraments. 

The Apostles' creed would doubtless have been ac- 
ceptable to him as a fair summary of the Gospel, if 
such a document had been known in his region at 
that time ; but that other creed, named after St. Atha- 
nasius, would probably have worried him a good deal, 
as indeed it does a great many other good people. 

In those days sectarian controversy was the chief 
business of many of the clergy, and great doctors of 
divinity belabored one another with logical cudgels, 
attacking and defending extra-Scripture dogmas whose 
very existence has now been almost forgotten. 

To Mrs. Moody these controversies were peculiarly 
distasteful. The pressing cares and heavy burdens of 
her life led her to seek for a Friend and Helper in the 
Lord, and not to speculate about His secret will. She 
was determined to do all she could to save her chil- 
dren in this life, and she insisted on believing in a 
God who would do the same for them in the life to 
come ; but this was not at all the manner of the ortho- 
dox theology of those days, which taught that God 



D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 



had foreordained, for His own good pleasure, the de- 
struction of a large portion of the human race, and 
that, without respect to their character. To some of 
her neighbours this seemed a wholesome doctrine, a 
warning to unbelievers, but a great comfort to the 
saints, who were thus assured of a small and select 
society in the great hereafter ; but to the widow it 
was the gall of bitterness. 

Another theological invention of those times which 
had a considerable run was the duty of being willing 
to be damned if God in his secret will had so deter- 
mined. Great stress was laid upon it in certain parts 
of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the orthodox 
neighbours of Mrs. Moody did not fail to exhort her to 
the attainment of this rather mournful state of mind. 
Against this the soul of the widow rebelled. She was 
not at all willing to be damned, and more especially 
was she unwilling that any of her little children should 
be. Her Calvinistic friends reproved her for her rebel- 
lion against the divine decrees ; but if there were any 
decrees which shut out any of her household from a 
fair chance of Heaven, she determined, at least, not to 
be tormented by them in prayers and sermons, and 
she placed herself and her family under the instruc- 
tions of Pastor Everett, who was for giving all sinners 
the best possible chances of salvation ; and they were 
all baptized together, and received into the Unitarian 
Church of Northfield, after the fashion of those days. 

The successor of Pastor Everett was of the worst 
rationalistic school, and Mr. Moody sometimes quotes 
one of his sayings with horror; but the widow held 
fast to the hand of the Lord, and brought up her chil- 



PASTOR AND WIDOW. 



dren to read the Bible and to believe in the grace of 
God whereby she hoped they would all be brought 
into His kingdom. 

True to his promise, Pastor Everett used to help 
the widow in the care of her children. He would 
visit them betimes, cheer them up with some pleasant 
words, settle quarrels among the boys, give the little 
ones a* bright piece of silver all round, and bid the 
mother keep on praying, telling her God would never 
forget her labour of love. At one time he took 
little Dwight into his family to do errands and go 
to school — a work of charity which, by all accounts, 
must have sorely tried his patience. The good man 
was often perplexed what to do with the boy, being 
forced to laugh at his pranks in spite of himself, when 
he felt it his duty to be stern and severe. 

But his chief instructor in religion, as well as in 
everything else, was his mother. Great sorrow and 
years of toil and privation had drawn her heart very 
close to the Saviour, and when the care of her great 
family of little children grew so heavy as almost to 
overwhelm her, she learned to cast her burden on the 
Lord. Sometimes, when the boys were quarrelsome 
and rebellious, and the household was in utter con- 
fusion, she would go away to her own room and pray 
for wisdom and patience. " And when I would come 
back," said she, "they would all be good children 
again." 

As fast as they came to be old enough, they were 
sent to the Unitarian Church in the village — a little 
more than a mile away ; the elder boys, who were 
out at work, coming home on Saturday night, to go 



8 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

with their little brothers and sisters. They used to 
take their dinners and stay all day, hearing the two 
sermons, and attending the Sunday-school which was 
sandwiched between them ; and then they would all 
come home again for supper, before going to their 
places of work. Thus the mother kept her family 
together. In spite of the poverty which parted them 
during the week, the home life of the Sabbath pre- 
served their unity. 

After supper the mother would gather them all 
around her on an old settle in the porch, or under one 
of the great sugar-maple trees in the front yard, if it 
were summer time, and read to them out of the books 
which they brought home from the Sunday-school 
library. 

It was no small wonder how these little books 
always knew so much about that particular family. 
If Dwight had been unusually proud and mischievous, 
or if George had been out of patience with him, or if 
anything had gone wrong in the household, the library 
book was sure to have some account of it, or of some- 
thing wonderfully like it ; and also to contain just the 
sort of good advice adapted to each particular case. 
It was sometimes rather difficult for them to " find 
the place" afterwards; but they were none the less 
interested in the reading. And had not Mrs. Moody 
as good a right to revise and adapt the Sunday-school 
books as anybody else had to make them ? Surely 
the things she read out of her own heart for the good 
of her little flock were of just as high authority as if 
they had actually been printed between those little 
speckled covers with the red backs and corners, and 



SUNDAY EVENING READINGS. 9 

bearing the name of the famous old American Sunday- 
School Union. 

At the table the mother would repeat a text of 
Scripture or a verse of a hymn, and the children would 
say it in chorus after her. That table, as may well be 
supposed, was not always very well supplied ; but the 
mother, though toiling day and night to feed and 
clothe her children, and not always knowing to-day 
where the food was to come from for to-morrow, kept 
up a brave heart and wore a cheerful face. The 
shadow of poverty and death was over them, but the 
love of the Great Father above, and of the godly 
mother below, kept the little ones from want and 
gloom, and made their home a happy one in spite of 
all their misfortunes. 

But another sorrow fell upon that home on the 
mountain side. One of the elder sons, with a boy- 
ish ambition to make his fortune in the great 
world, suddenly disappeared. 

For years no tidings of the lost boy reached the 
widowed mother. It seemed sometimes as if her 
heart would break for him. " Oh ! if I could only 
know he was dead, it would be better than this! 
Maybe Jje is sick and in want ! — maybe he has 
fallen in with wicked men, who will make him like 
themselves ! " 

They would all sit in a semicircle about the fire 
of a stormy winter's night, and listen to stories of 
their dead father : what he did, what he said, how he 
looked, how he was kind to a friend and lost a great 
deal of money by him, and so their little home was 
mortgaged, and they were poor. But if by chance any 



io D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

one spoke the name of the absent brother, a great 
silence fell upon them ; the tears would come into the 
eyes of the mother, and then they would steal away to 
bed, whispering their <l good-nights," and walking softly 
as they went ; for that name was like a sword-thrust 
to the mother's heart. Then they would lie awake 
listening to the roar of the wind among the mountains, 
thinking maybe he was out in the cold somewhere ; 
or, worse than that, perhaps he had gone to sea, and 
while they were snug in bed was keeping watch on a 
wave-beaten deck, or climbing a reeling mast in just 
such darkness and storm. 

Now and then, between the gusts, a sound would 
be heard like the wail of the summer wind when it 
used to make harpstrings of the leaves and branches 
of the great maple trees in the yard : low and gentle 
now, and again rising into louder and stronger tones. 
Then they held their breath and listened. Mother 
was sitting up to pray for her lost boy. 

Next morning perhaps she would send them down 
to the post-office in the village, a mile and a half away, 
to ask for a letter — a letter from him, though the 
mother never said so. But no letter ever came. 

Long years after, when the widow was growing 
old, and her soft dark hair was turning white, one 
summer afternoon a tall, swarthy man, with heavy 
black beard, was seen coming in at the gate. He 
came up under the porch, and, the door being open, 
he stopped and looked in, with an eager, anxious 
face, as if he were afraid he might not find the 
one he was seeking, though he had stopped at the church- 
yard on his way through the village to see whether 



THE PRODIGAL SON. u 



there were two graves instead of one where his father 
had been laid so many years ago. Surely his mother 
was not dead, but was she still at the old home ? 

The widow came to the door to bid the stranger 
in. The eyes that had watched so long for his coming 
did not know him now. He was only a boy when he 
ran away ; years of hardship and exposure to sun and 
storm had made him strange even to his mother. 

" Will you come in ? " said she, in her courteous and 
kindly way. 

But the stranger did not move or speak. He stood 
there, humbly and penitently, in the presence of her 
whose love he had slighted, and whose heart he had 
broken ; and, as a sense of his ingratitude began to 
overwhelm him, the big tears began to find their way 
over his weather-beaten face. 

By those tears the mother recognised her son. He 
had come at last ! There was so much of the old 
home in him that he could not always stay away. But 
he would not cross its threshold till he had confessed 
his sin against it, and heard from the same lips which 
had prayed for him so often and so long, the sweet 
assurance that he was forgiven. 

" No ! no ! " said he ; "I cannot come in till my 
mother forgives me." 

Weeping upon his neck, forgetting all the sorrow 
he had caused her in the joy of seeing him once more, 
she forgave him because he asked it, and because she 
loved him. 

"And that is just the way," says Moody, — who 
sometimes tells the story to his great congrega- 
tions, — "that is just the way God forgives all the 



12 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

prodigal sons who come back to Him. Do you 
think mother kept her long-lost boy out there in 
the porch till he had gone through with a string 
of apologies, and done a list of penances, and said 
ever-so-many prayers ? Not at all ! She took him 
to her heart at once. She made him come right in. 
She forgave him all, and rejoiced over his coming 
more than over all the other children. He had been 
lost, and now he was found ! " 

A lovelier spot than that old homestead would be 
hard to find. It stands on the eastern slope of the 
valley of the Connecticut river, which here flows 
through narrow meadows, with grand hills on either 
side, rising here and there into peaks, which, if there 
were not so many of them in that part of the State, 
would be called mountains, and honoured with separate 
names. Whatever advantage there is in glorious 
natural scenery, the boy D wight enjoyed it in great 
perfection. Certain it is that in after life his manners 
came to be quite suggestive of bold peaks, mountain 
torrents, and hurricanes sweeping over woods and 
hills. 

The air of that region is the very elixir of life. 
One of his Chicago friends went to visit him at his 
old home, being just ready to die of consumption; 
but in a little while he inhaled so much health 
from the breezes of the Northfield mountains, that he 
gave up his immediate prospects of heaven and went 
back to business once more. 

Among the rich inheritances of this poor boy 
were a vigorous constitution, boundless ambition and 
animal spirits, and a will strong enough to break 



BOY TRAITS. 13 



down all opposition and drive him on to success. 
His pride was all the time leading him to undertake 
things far beyond his years. His mother says, " He 
used to think himself a man when he was only a 
boy." The fatherly authority was wanting, and he 
soon came to feel himself his own master. Anything 
was easier than submission. 

He had little faith in prayer. Once when 
he was creeping under a heavy fence, it fell down 
upon him and caught him, so that he could not get 
away. He struggled till he was quite exhausted, 
and then began to cry for help ; but he was far from 
any house, and no one heard him. At last he got 
safely out; and this was the account he gave of his 
escape : — 

" I tried and tried, and I couldn't lift them awful 
heavy rails ; then I hollered for help, but nobody 
came ; and then I began to think I should have to 
die away up there on the mountain all alone. But 
I happened to think that, maybe, God would help 
me, and so I asked Him. And after that I could lift 
the rails, just as easy ! " 

During these years Dwight went through as many as 
a dozen terms at the little district schoolhouse ; but 
very little of the school ever went through him; in 
fact, the boy was so amazingly full, that there was 
really no room in him for the sciences and arts. 

There were few things he would not do for his 
mother: at her urgent entreaty he would even do a 
little studying. He would usually obey her ; but she 
was the only person in all the world who ever was able 
to manage him. He was proud and wilful to the last 



14 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

degree, but full of generous impulses. He was un- 
governable, partly because he was a natural leader 
himself. Still there was nothing vicious in his dis- 
position. If he could be made to see that he had 
wronged any one, he was ready to beg his pardon 
for it, and do better in future. 

His last term of school was in the winter of his seven- 
teenth year. He was the leading spirit among the 
boys, and so much mischief did he lead them into that 
at length the teacher was in despair, and threatened to 
turn him out. At this his good mother was sorely 
grieved. She told him how much ashamed she should 
be to have one of her sons turned out of school, and 
directed him to go to the teacher, ask forgiveness for 
his bad conduct, and try to be a credit to his mother 
rather than a disgrace. This he did in all sincerity, 
and the rest of the term, for the first time in his life, 
applied himself faithfully to study. 

But it was too late for him to become a scholar 
The time had come when he felt called to the hard 
work of life ; and, with such little learning as had 
accumulated in him, he hardly knew how, he must 
go out and boldly face the world. 

Whatever religious impressions he had felt in child- 
hood seem to have been covered out of sight, and he 
grew up to be a young man, or rather, a big boy, with 
no other piety in him than the love of his mother, and 
a sturdy determination to be an honest and successful 
man. He had muscles like steel, and the courage of 
a young lion. More than this, — he had the courage 
to take his place among educated people, in spite of 
his own deficiencies, though he sorely regretted the 



LITERARY ECCENTRICITIES. 15 

«■ 

wasted opportunities of the years which would come 
again no more. He was determined to " make the 
best of it " now. Of course he would have to labour at 
a disadvantage all his life ; but then, he had always 
succeeded somehow, and this he always expected to do. 

If he came to a hard word in reading, he did not 
stop at it, but made a rough guess what it might be, 
from the sense of the passage; or, if it was altogether 
out of his reach, he would invent a word which might 
sound something like it in the more prominent sylla- 
bles, and drive on all the faster for the excitement 
caused by his desperate vocal spring. 

So in emergencies of every kind. A bold push, 
aided by ready wit, carried him over many a diffi- 
culty before which a wiser but less courageous lad 
would have set himself down in despair. Like the 
eagle which springs from the mountain crag into the 
air above the abyss, safely trusting to its power of 
flight, young Moody plunged into many a desperate 
situation, strong in the sense of power which he 
felt within him, on which he seemed upborne like the 
eagle on its wings. 

There was evidently " something in him," but that 
* something " seemed to be almost anything else rather 
than a preacher of the Gospel. 

His mother still lives in the old home at Northfield, 
and to that cherished spot Mr. Moody hastened upon 
his arrival from England ; his name known and blessed 
throughout the whole civilized world. Surely that 
mother has met a great reward for her faithfulness 
and love ; — the bread she cast upon the waters years 
ago has been found again. 



CHAPTER II. 

OUT INTO THE WORLD, AND UP INTO THE CHURCH. 

SOON after his seventeenth birthday, the winter 
school being over, young Moody started to 
seek his fortune in the great world. He went first to 
Clinton, where he had a brother, clerk in a store; but 
finding no business to his mind, he pushed on to 
Boston — then, as now, the Mecca of all Bay State 
boys ambitious of a business career. 

His uncle, Samuel Holton, had visited the old 
home a little while before, and Dwight had asked 
him for a place in his boot and shoe store in Boston ; 
but learning what a wild young colt he was, he had 
refused, fearing to take him to a great city, where 
there seemed to be ninety-nine chances in a hundred 
that he would go straight to ruin. But the young 
man was determined to show his uncle that he could 
find or make a place for himself, without help from 
any one. Accordingly, much to that excellent man's 
surprise, his nephew one day made his appearance in 
his store, — not to ask for a place, oh no ! but just as a 
visitor acquainted with his sister in the country. Her 
younger brother Lemuel had a house in the city, and 



FIRST APPEARANCE IN BOSTON. 17 

here he was made welcome while, relying on himself 
as usual, he began to beat about the city for a situa- 
tion. 

But fortune did not seem to favour him. He was 
fresri from the farm, and had far more of the moun- 
tains than of the schools in his conversation and 
manners ; his clothes were seedy, and not of the most 
fashionable style ; and, by way of a climax to his 
difficulties, a big boil came out on his neck, which 
forced him to go about with his head turned down 
over one shoulder, in a way which did not at all im- 
prove his personal appearance or help his prospects 
for business. 

At the end of a week he was disgusted, but not 
discouraged. Nobody in Boston appreciated him ; 
and he announced his purpose of shaking off its dust 
from his feet and trying what he could do in New 
York, — to which place he must have travelled on foot, 
for his money was all gone, and he had nothing he 
could sell to raise any more. 

" Have you asked your Uncle Samuel to help you 
to a situation ? " inquired Mr. Lemuel Holton. 

" No," said Dwight ; " he knows I am looking for a 
place, and he may help me or not, just as he pleases." 

But his pride was beginning to bend a little, though 
it was by no means ready to break. He was adrift 
in the world, which seemed to care no more for him 
than the ocean waves care for a floating spar. Taking 
advantage of this state of mind, for which he had been 
waiting, his uncle ventured to offer him a little sound 
advice ; telling him that his self-will was greatly in 
his way, that modesty was sometimes as needful 

2 



18 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

as courage, and suggesting that his Uncle Samuel 
would no doubt be glad to do something for him if 
he should show himself a little more willing to be 
governed by people who were older and wiser than 
himself. Acting upon this advice, he was kindly re- 
ceived by that gentleman, who consented to give him 
a place as salesman in his store, on the following 
conditions: First, he was to board at a place to be 
selected by his uncle ; second, he was not to be out 
in the streets at night, or go to places of amusement 
which his uncle did not approve ; third, he was regu- 
larly to attend the Mount Vernon Church and Sunday- 
school. 

Mr. Holton was and is a successful business man, 
who came to Boston himself looking for a situation 
when about his nephew's age, and who, by strict 
attention to duty and religion, had come to wealth 
and honour. Knowing how many young clerks are 
lost through the carelessness of their employers, he 
resolved on making a right beginning with this one, 
hoping that his own good sense would keep him in 
the straight road when once he was fairly started in 
it. Before his removal to the suburban village of 
Winchester he had been a long time member of the 
Mount Vernon Church, where he knew the young man 
would be sure to find good companions — a matter 
which he regarded as of vital importance. To these 
three conditions another general one was added; viz., 
that D wight was to be governed by the judgment of 
his uncle rather than his own, — which was a mild 
way of stating the, to him, exceedingly irksome duty 
of obedience to his superiors. 



MOODY'S IDEAS OF BUSINESS. 19 

In his extremity the young man agreed to all 
things required of him, and, what was more, he kept 
his agreement. A home was found for him in a 
Christian family who lived in very humble style, and 
he entered upon his duties on a very small salary, 
though with a sure foothold in the world of trade; 
where his future would depend upon the use he made 
of himself and his opportunities. 

It may be imagined that his country life and his 
misuse of the country school had not fitted him to 
shine in the city. His pride and poverty kept him 
from feeling at home among the well-bred, well- 
dressed people to whom he was introduced. For a 
time he was unhappy ; but he steadily held to his 
purpose of conquering a place for himself high up in 
the circles of wealth and influence. He felt sure of 
ultimate success, and for it he laboured night and day. 

He was a sharp observer of human nature, quick to 
take advantage of everything in his favour, always on 
the alert, and ready for any emergency. His pride 
did not admit of his asking too many questions, 
and, as the business was new to him, he was 
often in doubt about prices and qualities; but what 
he lacked in knowledge he would make up in 
shrewd guessing, and within three months after 
his entering the house, he sold more boots and shoes 
than any other man in it. His idea of business was, 
a struggle with mankind, out of which the hardest 
heads and the sharpest wits were sure to come with 
the largest influence and the longest purse. The 
quiet manners of his uncles he could never learn, nor 
did he desire to learn them. He went about his 



20 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

duties in the store in much the same way as he would 
have swung a scythe in a field of tangled clover, or 
broken a yoke of wild steers. If any one offended 
his sense of honour, he would fly into fury at once ; 
but the tempest of passion soon passed by. 

His habit of striking out right and left sometimes 
raised an uproar in the whole establishment ; and 
there was no little difficulty in keeping the peace. It 
was difficult for him to get rid of the notion that he 
must fight his way through the world ; and, a long 
time afterwards, when he became famous as a 
Christian teacher and leader, he seemed to enjoy the 
service of the Lord all the more because, at the same 
time, he could be valiantly fighting the devil. 

The Mount Vernon Church was one of the most 
excellent and exact of all the orthodox Congrega- 
tional Churches of New England. Its pastor was 
magnificent — physically, mentally, and spiritually ; 
just the sort of man to captivate this high-spirited 
youth, who, at that period, was older and wiser than 
at any other time in his life, and to whom only the 
greatest heroes and the grandest ideas were of any 
particular importance. An ordinary preacher would 
have failed to reach him or win his respect : he would 
have spent the hour of church service in criticizing 
him, and would have mimicked his weaknesses and 
made fun of his faults when he came home. But 
Dr. Kirk was a prince among ministers ; and young 
Moody, having at last found a man whom he believed 
to be wiser and stronger than himself, sat reverently 
at his feet and learned of him. 

In the Sunday-school he was placed in the Bible- 



THE UNPROMISING SCHOLAR, 21 

class of Mr. Edward Kimball. Here he attended, at 
first, perforce of his agreement with his uncle, and 
sat out the lesson with evident weariness and impa- 
tience. His teacher says he felt as if he were not 
getting any hold of the young man, and was even 
failing to interest him. But one Sunday, when the 
lesson happened to be about Moses, he listened with 
considerable attention, and at length broke out with 
this question, which was the first remark he had 
ventured to make, — 

"That Moses was what you would call a pretty 
smart sort of a man, wasn't he ? " 

Glad at last to hear a word from his unpromising 
scholar, Mr. Kimball received the question with much 
favour, and enlarged upon it, greatly to young Moody's 
satisfaction. He soon began to warm towards his 
teacher, though for the church and school in general 
he had an increasing dislike. The men and women 
were so rich and proper and pious, that they seemed 
to live in a world almost out of his sight. The young 
people wore good clothes and spent a good deal of 
money, in which he could not imitate them ; therefore 
he felt himself a victim of misfortune, and revenged 
himself, as people often do in such cases, by denounc- 
ing his more fortunate brethren and sisters for their 
pride ; when, if he could have looked into his own 
heart, he might have seen it was the proudest of them 
all. 

But presently the Spirit of the Lord began to work 
upon him. Under the plain and loving sermons of his 
pastor, and the personal instructions of his Sunday- 
school teacher, his heart began to soften; and, remem- 



22 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

bering the lesson taught him by his mother, he 
began again to pray the Lord to help him to be 
good. 

One day Mr. Kimball called upon him at his place 
of business ; and, putting his hand kindly on his 
shoulder, inquired if he would not give his heart to 
Christ. That question awakened him. He began to 
seek the Saviour in earnest, and in a little while he 
felt the assurance of the pardon of his sins and of his 
acceptance as a child of God. 

Years afterwards he used to say, " I can feel the 
touch of that man's hand on my shoulder even yet." 

With the same enthusiasm in religion as in every- 
thing else, he soon began to speak in the meetings 
of the church, telling what God had done for his soul, 
sometimes adding a little piece of exhortation, which 
was not always flattering to the elegant believers 
around him, and which was received with evident 
marks of disfavour. 

One good lady called upon his Uncle Samuel, and 
requested him to advise the young convert to hold 
his peace until he should become more able to edify 
the meetings. But Mr. Holton replied that he was 
glad D wight had the courage to profess his faith in 
the Saviour in such presence, and declined to put a 
straw in his way. 

In due time he applied to be received into the 
Mount Vernon Church, and went before the deacons 
to be examined as to his faith and doctrine. His 
home training in religion, as it appeared, had not 
very well qualified him to pass that strict examina- 
tion He had a good deal of faith, but in doctrine 



MR. MOODY'S CONVERSION. 23 

he was lamentably wanting. The Spirit of God had 
begun the work of sanctification in him, but as yet 
the leaven of orthodox theology had made but little 
impression upon the lump. He could not answer the 
questions the good deacons put to him ; but, as far 
as he knew his duty to Christ, the church, and the 
world, he was willing and anxious to do it. 

There was no such sudden and complete transforma- 
tion in him as is sometimes wrought in the experience, 
of conversion ; but the work of saving grace went on in 
him gradually, and his piety deepened by slow degrees, 
having so much of the old Adam in its way. But he 
had set his face as a flint in the direction of duty and 
heaven, and so sturdily did he resist the devil, and so 
hopefully did he get up and go on again whenever that 
enemy managed to trip him up, that, in the judgment 
of his friends, and especially of his aunt, Mrs. Holton, 
to whom he opened his heart, it became fully evident 
that he was one of the elect. 

The cautious and conservative deacons, however, 
were not quite clear in their minds about receiving a 
convert into that church with such a meagre supply of 
doctrine in him. At length they proposed to put him 
upon a kind of probation, advising him to go on to- 
wards heaven by himself for a while — an arrangement 
which Deacon Ward reported to his uncle, and to which 
all parties agreed. 

After a time he made a second application, and at 
the May Communion, in the year 1855, he was received 
into the church at whose portal he had waited half a 
year, not for want of faith, but for want of doctrine 

Some years afterwards Dr. Kirk was in Chicago, 



24 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

attending the anniversary of the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions ; and lodged at 
the house, and preached in the pulpit, of his former 
parishioner. On his return he called upon Mr. Holton 
and said, — 

" I told our people last night that we ought to be 
ashamed of ourselves. There is that young Moody, 
who we thought did not know enough to be in our 
church and Sunday-school, exerting a greater influ- 
ence for Christ than any other man in the great 
North-West." 

The Rev. Dr. Savage, of Chicago, relates an incident 
which occurred during Mr. Moody's second visit to 
England, when he took a good-natured revenge upon 
one of those very deacons. 

At one of his great meetings in Exeter Hall he 
espied his old friend sitting in a corner away back 
under the gallery. The good man, travelling for his 
health, had seen the notice of the meeting, and, partly 
out of curiosity to see what the man could do, he 
attended the service, taking a seat where he felt sure 
Moody would not see him. But just before closing 
the meeting Mr. Moody exclaimed, — 

"I see in the house an eminent Christian gentleman 
from Boston. Deacon Palmer, come right forward to 
the platform ; the people want to hear from you ! " 

The deacon shook his head, but Moody was inexor- 
able; so there was nothing for it but to accept the 
situation and face the audience. He commenced by 
saying that he had known Mr. Moody in Boston in 
early life ; had been, in fact, a member of the same 
church with him, and was very glad of his great 



MOODY REPAYS HIS FRIEND. 25 

success in the service of the Lord: when Moody 
suddenly burst out with the remark, — 

" Yes, Deacon, and you kept me out of that church 
for six months, because you thought I did not know 
enough to join it." 

The effect of such a speech under such circum- 
stances can be better imagined than described. But 
the deacon was too old a speaker to be silenced by 
such a retort, though he found it difficult to be heard 
on account of the laughter which followed it. The 
audience, he said, must agree with him that it was a 
great privilege to have received Mr. Moody into the 
church at all, even though with great misgivings and 
after long delay. 

To his teacher, Mr. Kimball, Mr. Moody has 
always felt under the deepest obligations ; for it was 
his personal and affectionate interest in his soul's 
welfare which, under God, was the means of his 
conversion. One of the sweetest experiences of his 
after life, when he had become a successful evangelist, 
was to find his own exhortations blessed to the 
awakening and conversion of a daughter of his old 
teacher, whose care of the rough young stranger was 
thus rewarded in a way to make his heart for ever 
glad. 

But this was not all. Some years ago he was 
holding some meetings in Boston, when a young man 
came to him after service and introduced himself as 
a son of Mr. Kimball. 

Mr. Moody was glad to see him, and at once in- 
quired if he were a Christian. He answered that 
he was not. 



26 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

" How old are you ? " 

" Seventeen." 

"Just my age when your father led me to the 
Saviour; and that was just seventeen years ago this 
very day. Now I want to pay him by leading his 
son to Christ." 

The young man was deeply impressed. They 
went into a pew together; Mr. Moody prayed with 
him, and received his promise to give his heart to 
Christ. Soon after, he heard by a letter from his 
father that the young man had found peace in 
believing. 

After his reception into the church, young Moody 
became more and more zealous, and spoke with still 
greater freedom, but did not become any more accep- 
table to his quiet and cultivated brethren and sisters. 
The love of God and the longing to be useful was 
" as a fire shut up in his bones," and, like other 
fires, it sometimes gave out smoke as well as heat. 
Like too many other young believers, he also came 
to think he must speak or pray in every meeting, — an 
opinion which he acted upon so persistently that even 
good Dr. Kirk himself was a little out of patience with 
him, and felt obliged to put on an extinguisher now 
and then. 

A more careiul study of this young steam-engine 
convert would have shown the pastor that what he 
needed was not to put out his fires, but to help 
him to make some connection with the work of God 
which would allow him to use his surplus energy 
and zeal. But no one made this discovery ; no one 
set him at work. The type of religious life in the 



RELIGIOUS PATIENCE AND IMPATIENCE. 27 

churches of that order, at that time, was passive 
rather than active ; no one felt in a hurry about the 
salvation of sinners, or the sanctification of believers. 
God's processes of grace were presumed to be slow 
and gradual. Everything would come right in God's 
own time. Their patience came to be almost a vice. 

Young Moody was at the opposite extreme. He 
desired to rush into the kingdom of heaven himself, 
and was impatient of the apparently slow pace of his 
neighbours. He reached out blindly, yet eagerly, for 
" the powers of the world to come." He wanted to 
hurry on the Millennium. 

During the rest of his stay in Boston, which was 
about five months after his reception into the Mount 
Vernon Church, he seems to have felt like a caged 
bird. The settled and finished condition of every- 
thing around him was a constant restraint. There 
seemed to be no room for him anywhere. His 
brethren cherished the hope that longer experience 
would tone down his impetuous spirit, and make him 
at length a quiet and orderly Christian, after their own 
hearts. Against all this young Moody's soul rebelled ; 
but finding the pressure of society too strong for him, 
he began to dream of the West, where fortunes were 
awaiting those who had the courage and genius to 
strike for them, and where, above everything else, an 
irrepressible young man like him would be sure to find 
plenty of room. 



28 



CHAPTER III. 

SMALL BEGINNINGS IN MISSIONARY WORK. 

IN September 1856 young Moody struck out for 
the West, full of ambition to make his fortune. 

On his arrival in Chicago, where God had such a 
glorious mission awaiting him, he found a situation as 
salesman in the boot and shoe store of Mr. Wiswall, 
in Lake Street, to whom he had been recommended, 
but who received him with great misgivings, on ac- 
count of his unfinished appearance and impetuous 
manner. 

In a little while he was in high favour with his 
employer. His bluff and hearty style made him very 
popular with the rough class of customers, and at 
length it was the established custom in the house, 
when sharp or unmanageable men or women came in 
to buy, to turn them over to Moody, who took great 
delight in dealing with them on that very account. 

Mr. Wiswall says, " His ambition made him 
anxious to lay up money. His personal habits were 
exact and economical. As a salesman he was just 
the same zealous and tireless worker that he after- 
wards became in religion." 

A jobbing department being presently opened, 



THE DEBATING SOCIETY. 29 

Moody was promoted to a situation in it, where he 
seemed to be quite in his element ; its duties, partly- 
inside and partly outside, giving him an opportunity 
to beat up the hotels, depots, and all other public 
places, for customers ; and having found persons who 
had come to town to make purchases in his line, he, 
as his employer says, " used almost literally to * com- 
pel them to come in ' and buy." 

In those early days Chicago merchants realized 
large profits. Business was brisk, and times were 
good ; and the young man seemed in a fair way to 
realize his dreams of a fortune. A gentleman, who 
was then a clerk in the same house, says, " Moody 
was a first-rate salesman. It was his particular pride 
to make his column foot up the largest of any on the 
book, not only in the way of sales, but also of profits. 
He took particular delight in trading with notional 
or unreasonable people; especially when they made 
great show of smartness and cunning, and thought 
themselves extraordinarily wise. Nothing was ever 
misrepresented in the smallest particular ; but when 
it came to be a question of sharpness of wit between 
buyer and seller, Moody generally had the best of it." 

Some of the clerks had their lodgings in the store 
— an arrangement which served the double purpose 
of economy and security ; and it became one of 
the standard amusements of the young men, after 
their day's work, to turn the place of business into 
a hall of debate. The clerks from several neigh- 
bouring establishments would come in of an evening, 
and thereupon a fiery discussion would ensue, on 
some question of politics or theology. This served 



30 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

to develop their powers of oratory, and did not 
weary or confuse their audience, which consisted, for 
the most part, of boxes of boots and shoes. 

The slavery question, on which the nation was 
already dividing, was a prolific source of argument. 
Moody, true to his Boston notions, was a violent 
abolitionist; but some of his fellow-salesmen took 
the Southern view of the peculiar institution, and thus 
the tides of excitement rose to an exceeding height. 
A still greater interest was imparted to these dis- 
cussions by the presence of the porter, a smart young 
negro who had formerly been a slave, and whose 
eloquence, inspired by sorrow, was sometimes touch- 
ing, and even sublime. 

In theology the chief subject of discussion was 
foreordination versus free-will. 

For some reason, in spite of his early trainings, 
Moody had come to be an ardent Calvinist ; while 
young Wiswall, a fellow-clerk, was a Methodist 
These two theologians, therefore, kept up the " Con- 
flict of Ages" in the Lake Street store, and were about 
as much advantaged by it as the most of their famous 
predecessors. They exercised their wits to good pur- 
pose, but were not materially assisted in religion. 

The vexed question of amusements also gave them 
good practice in debate. Moody was a Puritan. He 
hated theatres, billiards, cards, and all such pastimes, 
— counting them so many enticements of the devil. 
One of his fellow-clerks tells of his coming into the 
store one night from some religious meeting, and 
finding a game of checkers going on. In an instant 
he seized the board, dashed it to pieces, and before 



"/ ONLY SPEAK RIGHT ON" 31 

a word could be spoken, dropped upon his knees 
and began to pray. 

But notwithstanding his opposition to all time- 
wasting amusements, he was fond of a blood-stirring 
frolic or a good-natured trial of strength. He would 
plan and execute the most ingenious practical jokes, 
and laugh uproariously over their success ; but at the 
same time holding himself ready to laugh no less 
heartily at the pranks which were played upon him. 

On his arrival in Chicago he joined the Plymouth 
Congregational Church, of which the Rev. J. E. Roy 
was pastor, and at once commenced his career as 
a home missionary. This he did partly because he 
was lonesome and uneasy on the Sabbath, and felt 
the necessity of having something to do. 

His first effort was to hire four pews in Plymouth 
Church and keep them full of young men every Sun- 
day. He also opened his mouth in speech and prayer 
at the social meetings, with a freedom which, even in 
the West, soon brought him into trouble again. 

He had never heard of Talleyrand's famous 
doctrine that speech is useful for concealing one's 
thoughts. Like Anthony, he only spoke " right on." 
There was frequently a pungency in his exhorta- 
tions which his brethren did not altogether relish. 
Sometimes in his prayers he would express opinions 
to the Lord concerning them which were by no means 
flattering ; and it was not long before he received the 
same fatherly advice which had been given him 
in Boston — to the effect that he should keep his four 
pews full of young men, and leave the speaking and 
praying to those who could do it better. 



32 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

Partly on this account, and partly because no one 
church could furnish him enough to do, he began to 
attend a Sunday morning class in the First Metho- 
dist Church. Here he found congenial fellowship 
and labour with its Mission Band,— a company of 
young men who used to visit the hotels, saloons, etc., 
etc., on Sunday mornings, distributing tracts and in- 
viting people to attend divine service. 

It must have been a pleasant sight to see this 
sturdy young Congregationalist standing at the door 
of a Methodist church, at an hour when there was no 
meeting in his own, eagerly giving out printed and 
verbal invitations to the passers-by to join in the 
worship there. 

His success with the four pews in the little church 
gave him the clue to a line of work in which he 
afterward became famous. He was interested in 
Sunday-schools ; but the position of scholar was too 
quiet for him, and for that of teacher he was not very 
well qualified ; as a recruiting-officer, however, he was 
a marvel. Finding, in his missionary explorations, a 
little Sunday-school in North Wells Street, he offered 
to take a class in it. The superintendent replied that 
he could find plenty of teachers, and had, indeed, 
almost as many teachers as pupils ; but offered him 
the privilege of teaching any new scholars he might 
bring. The next Sunday, when the school opened, 
the new teacher appeared, followed by eighteen bare- 
headed, bare-footed urchins, ragged and dirty ; but, 
as the new teacher said, every one of them having a 
soul to be saved, which to him was the chief item of 
interest. 



WORK AMONG THE SAILORS. 33 

Mr. J. B. Stillson, a Presbyterian elder from 
Rochester, New York, was at that time building the 
Chicago Custom House. Feeling himself impelled 
to do some kind of missionary work, he began, in the 
spring of 1857, to visit the ships in the river on 
Sunday mornings, giving tracts and Testaments to 
the sailors, and sometimes holding little meetings on 
deck, or at some street-corner in the neighbourhood 
of a sailors' boarding-house. One morning he met 
a stout, hearty-looking fellow doing the same thing. 
The two at once joined company, and, having worked 
pleasantly together through the morning, the young 
man, feeling attracted by the fatherly ways of Mr. 
Stillson, begged the privilege of further work with 
him, — saying he wanted to do something for Christ, 
but did not very well know how. From that meeting 
commenced a friendship, which was of great advan- 
tage to the young enthusiast, and which is still 
remembered by his senior ally with ever-increasing 
pleasure. These two men, Moody and Stillson, 
thenceforth laboured and prayed together among the 
shipping, in the hospitals and jails, and in the homes 
of the poor and destitute. During that summer they 
also helped to recruit no less than twenty mission 
Sunday-schools. 

It was not long before Moody projected a mission 
of his own. Finding a deserted saloon, near the 
North Side Market, he rented it for his school on 
Sunday, and occasional service in the evenings of the 
week. The region in which this school was opened 
may be understood from the fact that, standing on 
the steps of the old Market House near by, their 



34 D, L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

voices could be heard in two hundred drinking and 
gambling dens. It swarmed with young barbarians — <■ 
just the kind of scholars he wanted. He had a kind 
of instinct that his mission, like that of his Master, was 
to save those who were lost; an idea simple enough in 
itself, but hard to understand by members of com- 
fortable churches, who shrink from contact with all 
who are not a good deal saved already. This man 
had read the parable of the Shepherd who left the 
ninety-and-nine safe in the fold, to go out into the 
mountains in search of the one that was lost ; and, 
without stopping to think whether the work would be 
hard or easy, popular or unpopular, he began looking 
for lost sinners on " The Sands." 

This was a section on the Lake shore, north of the 
river, which was to Chicagc what the Five Points 
were to New York, Old Ann Street to Boston, or St. 
Giles's to London. It was a moral lazaretto. Disorder, 
and even crime, was regarded as a matter of course 
on "The Sands," which would have been checked 
and punished in any other part of the city. To this 
abandoned region flocked the bad women and worse 
men, who had fallen too low to feel at home anywhere 
else ; and it was proverbially dangerous for any decent 
person to walk those streets after nightfall. 

Thither went Moody to recruit his Sunday-school. 

A more difficult field of labour could hardly be 
conceived ; but to him this was rather an attraction 
than a discouragement. The same ambition which 
led him to take pleasure in managing the roughest 
people in trade, made it also his great delight to 
bring the worst sinners to Christ. He had begun to 



MR. MOODY THEN AND NOW, 35 

be conscious of the defects in his education, and to 
mourn over them ; but here were people whom even 
he could teach ; here were souls whom he could 
exhort, without giving offence ; for they accepted 
the statement that they were sinners and in danger 
of perdition ; and thus, with perfect freedom, as well 
as with earnest tenderness, he plunged into the work 
of bringing these neglected people to the knowledge 
of Christ and His cross. 

His success as a Sunday-school scout assured him 
any number of wild boys and girls he might choose to 
bring in ; but his want of knowledge of the Scriptures 
and the methods of Sunday-school work led him to 
distrust himself, and to seek the assistance of the wisest 
and best Christian men among his acquaintance. He 
had indeed been accustomed to read the Bible as other 
people read fiction, poetry, biography, and travel — i.e. y 
because he liked it. He would spend hours together 
in this way, reading chapter after chapter, spelling 
out the hard words and skipping those he could not 
make out, but managing somehow to find the Lord 
in His Word ; and, having found Him, he was eager 
to show Him to all who had never made His ac- 
quaintance ; but how to do it, he did not very well know. 

"The contrast," says Mr. Hazard, in a recent 
number of the Sunday School Teacher ; " between Mr. 
Moody as he now is and Mr. Moody as we first knew 
him is simply amazing. Those who have known him 
from his earliest beginnings as an evangelist find it 
next to impossible to realize the change that has 
taken place in him, even though their memory shows 
a faithful portrait of his former self not the least 



36 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

dimmed by time. Those whose acquaintance with 
him is but recent can hardly conceive of the diffi- 
culties and apparent limitations through which Mr. 
Moody has struggled up to his present wonderful 
power." 

His old friend Mr. Reynolds, of Peoria, Illinois, 
related the following incident at a recent convention 
in Canada : — 

" The first meeting I ever saw him at was in a little 
old shanty that had been abandoned by a saloon- 
keeper. Mr. Moody had got the place to hold a 
meeting in at night. I went there a little late ; and 
the first thing I saw was a man standing up, with a 
few tallow candles around him, holding a negro boy, 
and trying to read to him the story of the Prodigal 
Son ; and a great many of the words he could not 
make out, and had to skip. I thought, If the Lord 
can ever use such an instrument as that for His 
honour and glory, it will astonish me. After that 
meeting was over Mr. Moody said to me, ' Reynolds, 
I have got only one talent : I have no education, but 
I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want to do some- 
thing for Him ; and I want you to pray for me.' I 
have never ceased from that day to this, morning and 
night, to pray for that devoted Christian soldier. I 
1 ave watched him since then, have had counsel with 
him, and know him thoroughly ; and, for consistent 
walk and conversation, I have never met a man to 
equal him. It astounds me when I look back and 
see what Mr. Moody was thirteen years ago, and 
then what he is under God to-day — shaking Scotland 
to its very centre, and reaching now over to Ireland. 



A SCHOOL UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 37 

The last time I heard from him, his injunction was, 
'Pray for me every day; pray now that God will 
keep me humble/ " 

The ideal Sunday-school of the present day is in a 
spacious hall, seated with chairs, or Booth benches ; 
the walls covered with maps or mottoes, or frescoed 
with texts and Scripture scenes ; a piano, or organ ; 
a blackboard ; object-lesson charts ; several hundred 
dollars' worth of light literature, and a considerable in- 
come to spend in picture-papers, lesson-leaves, teachers' 
journals, prizes, etc. ; to say nothing of fountains, bou- 
quets, banners, and other luxuries, designed to civilize 
rude sinners, while the Gospel is saving them. 

But none of these things were within Mr. Moody's 
reach. He himself was poor, and as yet had no rich 
friends ; but he possessed certain qualities of mind 
and heart by means of which he at length commanded 
all things needful for a great and efficient Sunday- 
school. 

One important qualification for his work was an 
intense and almost womanly love for children. He 
never seemed happier than when in the midst of a 
crowd of boys and girls, with whom he romped in the 
wildest fashion, beating them at their own sports and 
games, until he won their fullest confidence, and came 
to be regarded by them as the biggest and jolliest boy 
of them all. 

The first difficulty in the way was to make the 
acquaintance of those neglected little heathen — who, 
passing their lives in a constant struggle, amid kicks 
and blows, starvation and drunkenness, were savage 
and suspicious to the last degree. A Sunday-school 



38 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK, 

pure and simple would not be likely to attract such 
children ; it was useless to distribute tracts and Tes- 
taments among them, for they could not read. But 
Moody had taken counsel of the great apostle who used 
to catch unbelievers " with guile." Accordingly, he 
approached the enemy's works by strategy. Casting 
about to find some weak point favourable for his 
assault, he remembered that children were fond of 
sweets, and thereupon he invested quite a large sum of 
money, out of his small savings, in maple sugar, which 
appeared to give the largest value for the money of 
anything in that line ; and then, with his pockets full 
of the missionary sugar, and his heart full of zeal and 
love, he proceeded to attack The Sands. 

Very soon Moody was the most popular man in all 
that region. At first the little people would run away 
when he approached, but the sweetness of his manners 
and his gifts were sure to bring them back again ; 
and, having disarmed the hostility which those young 
gutter-snipes naturally felt towards any well-dressed 
person, it was not difficult to induce them to attend 
his school. 

If any one is inclined to take exception to Mr. 
Moody's missionary sugar, let him bethink himself of 
the various sweet enticements offered to more elegant 
sinners by the ministers and managers of fashionable 
congregations. Fine architecture, fresco and gilding; 
inlaid pulpits, and upholstered pews ; three-bank or- 
gans ; quartette choirs, whose music costs a dollar a 
stave; chimes of bells ; elaborate vestments ; rhetoric, 
poetry, and all manner of literary and social attrac- 
tions, as used in the higher circles of society, — are so 



CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS. 39 

many arguments in favour of that missionary sugar, 
which, better than any of the aforementioned per- 
suasions, was adapted to coax these young barbarians 
to attend the means of grace. It was an argument 
which even the most ignorant could understand, and 
by its help it is said that Moody made the acquaint- 
ance of every child within reach of his Mission ; and, 
through the children, he was known by almost every 
man and woman on The Sands. 

But what was to be done with such a crowd of 
small ruffians, when once they were brought together 
in the ex-saloon ? The question was one to appal a 
man of less faith and courage ; but he was equal to the 
occasion. Of one thing he felt sure : namely, that these 
children would enjoy Sunday-school singing; his musi- 
cal friend, Mr. Trudeau, was therefore installed in the 
office of chorister. Mr. Stillson came also, to make him- , 
self generally useful. This was the entire organization. 
Moody was Constitution, Stillson and Trudeau were 
By-laws. Each man was superintendent in such mat- 
ters as forced themselves on his attention — all three 
being worked to their fullest capacity, in quieting 
several simultaneous scuffles and fights in different cor- 
ners of the room, rescuing little boys from the clutches 
of big ones, and keeping down the noise among this 
mob of children, who, between the prayers and hymns, 
would pull each other's hair, and black each other's 
eyes, in a manner which left no doubt of the strictly 
missionary character of the school. 

It was a great blessing to Moody that he had a 
perfect contempt for trifles. These slight disorders 
among his scholars gave him little trouble. His 



4© D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

school was a religious institution, — strictly so, in- 
tensely so. He felt certain it would help to save 
some of those neglected little sinners ; therefore, in 
the midst of confusion, he was hopeful and happy. 
It was so much clear gain to bring them to a place 
where they would hear a few words of Scripture, a 
few Christian hymns, and a few words of godly 
counsel (provided the speaker had good lungs, and 
was not modest about using them), and a few words 
of prayer, which they were almost certain not to hear 
anywhere else. 

A Sunday-school martinet would have fretted him- 
self out of patience, and out of the school, in a very 
short space of time. But Moody had worked hard 
to bring those children together ; he had spent his 
money to buy the sugar that coaxed them ; he had 
promised the Lord to do his best to save them ; and he 
had persuaded some of his friends to help him. He 
was committed to the enterprise before God, angels, 
men and women, and a good many bad children ; there- 
fore, if it took a superintendent for every boy and an 
assistant superintendent for every girl, that school 
was foreordained to go on. 



41 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE NORTH MARKET MISSION. 

IT was not long before the increasing crowd needed 
a larger room ; and, by permission of Mayor 
Haines, the school was removed to the great hall over 
the old North Market. This hall was generally used 
on Saturday nights for a dance ; and it took most of 
the forenoon of Sunday to sweep out the sawdust, and 
wash out the tobacco and beer. There were no chairs 
or benches, so that the school was compelled to stand, 
or else sit on the floor. After enduring this state of 
things for some time, Moody constituted himself a 
committee of finance, and started to raise money 
for seating the place — making his collections on the 
general principle of asking money of those whom he 
thought most likely to have it. 

Among those to whom he applied was Mr. J. V. 
Farwell, already a prominent man of business. After 
getting his money, he inquired what Mr. Farwell was 
doing in the way of personal work for Christ; and, 
finding him not fully occupied, he invited him over to 
see his mission school. Knowing the quality of this 
man, whom he used to meet at the Sunday morning 



42 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

class, in the Methodist Church block, he determined 
to press him into service. 

The next Sunday Mr. Farwell appeared as a visitor 
at the North Market School. The scene was a new 
one. All his previous Sunday-school notions were 
put to flight. That riotous crowd seemed to be 
following the example of the Israelites in the time 
of the Judges, with one essential difference — namely, 
that each one was doing what was wrong in his own 
eyes, with the evident purpose of mischievous enjoy- 
ment. The seats had not yet arrived. The school 
was leaning up against the walls, and scattered over 
the floor in ever-varying forms, like the figures in the 
kaleidoscope ; jumping, turning somersaults, sparring, 
whistling, talking out loud, crying, " Papers ! " " Black 
your boots ! " " Have a shine, mister ? " — from which 
state of confusion they were occasionally rescued 
by a Scripture reading from Mr. Stillson, or a 
song from Mr. Trudeau, or a speech from Mr. 
Moody; only to relapse again into clamour and 
uproar, before the speaker or singer was fairly 
through. The emotions of Mr. Farwell, on being 
introduced to make a speech, were vivid rather than 
pleasing. He ventured a few words, and only a few, 
lest he should weary the patience of his audience. 
But what was his horror, at the close of his remarks, 
to hear himself nominated by Moody as superin- 
tendent of the North Market Mission Sunday School ! 

Before he had time to object, the school had elected 
him with a deafening hurrah. 

Many honours have fallen to that gentleman since 
that day ; and none of them ever came more un^ 



MOODY, FARWELL, AND COMPANY. 43 

expectedly, were bestowed more heartily, or brought 
with them more embarrassment ; but he accepted the 
office to which he was thus suddenly called, and entered 
at once upon its duties, which for more than six years 
he faithfully continued to perform. The outside work 
he left to his younger partner, while he managed the 
internal affairs of the school ; sometimes adding to 
his other duties those of treasurer— at least, so far 
as to make up any deficiency in the funds. 

The North Market Mission speedily became popu- 
lar, partly as a means of grace, and partly as a curi- 
osity. Before this time no mission school in the city 
had numbered more than one hundred and fifty ; but 
the school of Moody, Farwell, and Company increased 
by such rapid strides, that in three months it was two 
hundred strong ; in six months, three hundred and 
fifty; and within a year the average attendance was 
about six hundred and fifty ; with an occasional crowd 
of nearly a thousand. It is estimated that about two 
thousand children annually passed through the school ; 
many, of course, staying but a few weeks; but in those 
few weeks a revelation opened to their blinded souls 
which changed the whole course of their lives. 

Let it not be supposed that all these children came 
to Sunday-school of their own accord. It was neces- 
sary to hunt them up and bring them in, one by one. 
In this work Moody and his friend Stillson were 
steadily engaged every evening in the week, from the 
close of business until ten and eleven o'clock at night. 
On Sunday morning also they made a grand excursion 
through The Sands, and other lost regions ; from 
which they would return, bringing their spoils with 



44 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

them, in the shape of a dozen or so of the wild boys 
and girls they had found. 

Of course a work on this scale consumed large 
quantities of Moody's missionary sugar ; but when 
his funds ran low, he begged the sinews of war from 
his friends, which he invested, not only in this sweet 
attraction, but also in clothing and provisions, for the 
poorest of the poor, and in little luxuries for the sick, 
to whom he gave special attention, devoting a part 
of every evening to visiting and praying with them. 

Not content with capturing such children as he 
might find in the streets — whom he would sometimes 
chase into alleys and cellars, up and down ladders, 
and over piles of lumber, for the purpose of making 
their acquaintance — he also searched for them in their 
homes, making the acquaintance of their parents 
also, a good many of whom followed their children 
into the mission, and into the kingdom of heaven. 

At such times he often came across a Roman 
Catholic family, and sometimes narrowly escaped 
with a whole head. The enraged father, having 
previous knowledge of that heretical sugar, and being 
exceedingly mad at Moody for coaxing his young 
papists away with it, — on seeing his beaming face 
and sturdy form coming upstairs, or in at the door, 
would sometimes seize a club, and rush at him with 
oaths and curses. At this Moody would obey the 
exhortation given by Highest Authority to certain 
earlier missionaries : " If they persecute you in one " 
place, " flee ye into another." At such times, he used 
to say, his legs were his best friends. But though 
they served so well to take him out of danger, they 



THE FABIAN POLICY. 45 

always brought him back into it again ; till, at last, 
his patience and good-nature conquered all opposition. 
He adopted the Fabian policy, and wore out or wearied 
out his adversaries by constant light skirmishing, 
never venturing a battle ; and in most cases this 
method was so successful that he not only overcame 
his enemies and captured their children for his mission, 
but generally won them over to be his friends. 

The school presently became a wonder. Some 
of the leading members of prominent churches 
volunteered to teach classes in it, and some wealthy 
persons, who did not give themselves, gave of their 
fortune to help on the fortunes of the school. The 
name of one gentleman is mentioned, who would 
occasionally make the evening round of visits with 
Moody and Stillson — at which times he would provide 
himself with a quantity of one-dollar notes, folded 
separately, of which he sometimes gave away forty 
or fifty in a single evening, among their sick and poor 
parishioners. 

It was not long before the city missionary, who 
had divided the city into districts, began to make 
objection to the wide range of Mr. Moody and his 
workers for the North Market School. But this man 
never could understand ecclesiastical geography. Its 
dividing lines, like those on all other maps, were 
purely imaginary ; and if he crossed them freely in 
his search for children to teach, or sinners to save, it 
must be set down to the fact that, to his eyes, such 
lines were never visible. He would as soon have 
thought of marking out parishes for the sunshine, or 
parcelling out the air. The only authority he asked 



46 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

for doing good was the opportunity; and so vigorously 
did he use that authority, that, for a little while, he 
seemed in danger of monopolizing it. Neighbouring 
schools, working under a lower pressure, began to 
lose their scholars ; but, being exercised by this light 
affliction, it worked out for them a far more exceeding 
weight of success. Their zeal was provoked by the 
brilliant example of the Market Hall Mission, which 
thus becamea still greater blessing, by reflecting its ov/n 
light and spirit into all the other mission schools of the 
city. Of the school at this period Mr. Stillson says, 
° The city missionary began to be alarmed for it, lest, 
being worked at such high pressure, it should some 
time blow up." But this fear was never realized. Mr. 
Moody was guilty of all sorts of vagaries, and would 
follow an impulse, without waiting for judgment, — 
frequently shooting off at a tangent from all recog- 
nised circles of propriety ; but, in spite of all this, the 
school increased in vigour and in numbers, and, what 
was better, it gradually improved in order and in true 
religious life. Of its leader it may be said, as of 
Hezekiah, "And in every work that he began in the 
service of the house of God, and in the law, and in 
the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with 
all his heart, and prospered." 

For the seventy or eighty classes there was no lack 
of teachers. Every Sabbath the school was visited 
by people from all parts of the city, attracted by its 
growing fame as a curiosity of grace ; and from among 
these visitors there were many volunteers for work, 
so that every post was filled. But the management 
of such a band of teachers was a task of the utmost 



THE SHEET ANCHOR. 47 

delicacy. Coming from different churches, with wide 
variety of training and experience, the strict uniformity 
of method now insisted on was quite out of the ques- 
tion. In those days there was no International Series 
of Sunday School Lessons, selected and wrought out, 
ready to the teacher's hand. But there was a book 
with which every teacher and scholar was supplied — 
namely, the New Testament -; and this was the one 
point of uniformity in the school. 

The New Testament was Moody's sheet anchor. 
It held his craft from drifting into any serious heresy, 
and kept it from being wrecked on the shoals of mere 
amusement, towards which so many schools are carried 
with the tide. A teacher might have all sorts of 
notions of his own ; but, so long as he was willing to 
teach a class of such children out of the New Testa- 
ment, Moody felt certain that the man or woman 
could do but little mischief, while the book was 
certain to do much good. Thus, with a great and 
irregular band of teachers — Methodists, Calvinists, 
Liberals, rich and poor, high and low, learned and 
unlearned — the Gospel, which was its great theme 
and inspiration, made the school a unit and held it 
close to Christ. 

Safe in the New Testament as the common text- 
book, the school was made to depend for its further 
compactness upon the spirit and order of each indi- 
vidual class. Thus the fitness of the teachers for 
their work became a vital question ; and when one 
was found to be a failure, — a discovery by no means 
uncommon, since this kind of teaching was the most 
difficult of all, — it became an immediate necessity that 



48 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

he should be removed. Those young Arabs of the 
street were wild as colts, and cunning as foxes, and 
were certain to run away with their teacher if they 
detected any weakness in him. At the same time it 
would have been a painful task to say to a kind- 
hearted Christian, "You cannot teach ; you must make 
way for another." But Moody and his privy council 
hit upon a plan which brought them through every 
such difficulty. Scholars were permitted, on applying 
to the superintendent, to remove from one class to 
another ; and being quick to find out what teachers 
were alive and well up to their work, they applied the 
doctrine of natural selection in a manner that would 
have made Mr. Darwin's heart glad ; for it notably 
resulted in " The survival of the fittest." A teacher 
who was a failure would in two or three Sundays 
be left without a class ; for the children had the 
instinct of bees for finding out where the honey 
was ; and so, his occupation being gone, he would 
quietly and regretfully disappear, making room for 
a more fortunate successor. 

Under the administration of Messrs. Moody and 
Farwell this principle was maintained — namely, the 
school is for the scholars and not the scholars for the 
school. The rights of every child were respected. 

This unusual freedom of choice, though often 
abused, at length developed a spirit of pride, which 
helped to keep the classes in order. The school 
was their school ; the teacher was their teacher ; the 
superintendent was their superintendent ; and, above 
all, Moody was their Moody. Of this latter fact they 
never had any doubt ; and because of their absolute 



A FIGHT WITH WHISKY. 49 

faith in him, more than for any other reason, they 
submitted to be ruled by him, helped him to find 
new scholars, defended him against slanders, and 
sometimes even suffered punishment and abuse at 
home, because they would attend his heretical school. 

One of the larger boys came to Moody one Sunday 
afternoon, seeming to be in great trouble, and asking 
for confidential advice. It appeared that his father was 
a violent Roman Catholic, and a miserable drunkard 
besides ; kind enough to his family when not in liquor, 
but almost certain to be drunk every Sunday, and 
equally certain to give his son an unmerciful flogging 
on his return from the North Market School. The 
boy, who had outgrown his wild ways, and learned 
something of Christian duty, had endured this treat- 
ment for a long time rather than run away from home, 
and leave his poor mother and his little sisters, whom 
he hoped some time to lead into a better way of life. 

On hearing the case, Mr. Moody replied, " You 
must take advice of Some One who is strong," — by 
which the boy at once understood that he should 
ask help of the Lord. This he did ; and then, going 
home, was met at the door by his father, in a drunken 
rage, ready to give him the customary beating. 

Deliberately taking off his coat, he said, — 

" Father, you have always been kind to me when 
you are not in liquor : it is not my father, but whisky, 
that beats me every Sunday ; so now I am going to 
fight the whisky/' 

The old man, by no means cooled by such a re- 
sponse, fell upon him with fury ; but in the struggle 
which followed, whisky was so thoroughly beaten 

3* 



50 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

that from that time the father left his son to go to 
his mission school in peace. 

But his elder brother, also a papist, took the matter 
in hand, and, for a change, proposed to thrash Mr. 
Moody, whom he had never seen, as he had lately 
returned to the city after a long absence ; but before 
a convenient opportunity arrived he was taken sick 
with a fever, and for some time lay dangerously ill. 

Among those who came to watch with him were 
some of the teachers of that hated North Market 
School ; and presently, Moody himself, who sat up 
with him a night or two, watching for a chance to 
help the poor fellow's soul. On learning who the 
warm-hearted stranger was, all his anger passed away, 
and the promised beating was referred to no more. 

The history of the North Market School for its six 
years in the hall which gave it its name is full of the 
proofs of God's favour, and of the faith and devotion 
of the men and women who sustained it. The 
great purpose always kept in view was the salvation 
of souls. To reach this result every possible means 
was tried. Mere literary and social advantages were 
never regarded as important. A free evening school 
was, indeed, established, where such children as 
pleased to attend were taught a little reading and 
writing ; but it was believed by Moody and his 
brethren that the shortest road to education and 
refinement was the road which led to the cross of 
Christ and the gate of heaven. The words of the 
Saviour, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and this 
righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you," formed the basis of its hope and its sue- 



A GOSPEL SCHOOL. 51 



cess. If he could make Christians of these wild boys 
and girls, Moody believed they would make gentle- 
men and ladies of themselves. With this thought 
in view little time was spent on the geography or 
archaeology of the Bible, but the Gospel of the Son of 
God, pure and simple, was impressed upon the minds 
of the children in every possible way. Thus, while 
other kindred organizations might properly be called 
Bible schools, the North Market Mission was, above 
everything else, a Gospel school. It naturally took 
this direction, from the spirit and experience of its 
leader, who was determined to know nothing among 
them but "Christ, and Him crucified " ; a determina- 
tion easy for him to carry out, for he was thoroughly 
converted to, and quite well acquainted with, Christ ; 
while his other " knowledges " were, for this purpose, 
conveniently few and small. 

His friend, Mr. Stillson, declares that during those 
years he does not know of Moody's owning any other 
book except a copy of the New Testament. No 
man was more hungry for learning than he, but his 
taste was wholly in the direction of learning how to 
work for Christ. A history was of interest to him 
chiefly as a source from which to draw illustrations of 
Gospel truth ; a poem was very little to him unless 
it could be sung in his school ; of the sciences and 
polite arts he had no knowledge whatever. But in 
methods of work he was largely learned ; indeed, so 
fully was this recognised, that many profound scholars 
and Doctors of Divinity, though shocked by his bad 
rhetoric and worse grammar, came to him for instruc- 
tion in the ways of reaching and saving the great 



52 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

neglected mass of sinners who continually swarmed 
around them. 

"He that winneth souls is wise," the Scriptures say; 
and, measured by that standard, there was not to be 
found among the learned laity or clergy, in the whole 
United States, a wiser man than the rough, impetuous 
leader of the North Market Mission School. 

In order to bring his work to a religious focus, he 
established week-night prayer-meetings in the old 
saloon. In one respect these prayer-meetings were 
peculiar, — namely, they were nothing else than an 
assembly of people who wanted something of God, 
and who came together expecting to get it by asking. 
The going through with a set of appropriate religious 
exercises was to them a thing wholly unknown. 
They came together, a company of penitent sinners, 
not because they ought to come, but because they 
wanted to come. To this rude place, seated with 
rough boards placed upon empty nail-kegs, lighted 
by a few candles, and protected from violence by the 
police, came those children and older persons whose 
hearts the Gospel had reached, to inquire of Mr. 
Moody and his New Testament what they must do 
to be saved. There was a charming freshness in the 
praying and speaking at these meetings, which was 
just what might be expected from the previous train- 
ing of the school. These inquirers believed in God, 
not as an " unknown and unknowable Force," but as 
the Maker and Governor of heaven and earth. They 
believed in Jesus Christ not as "a reforming Jew," but 
as the Son of God who came into the world to save 
sinners ; and, though they had no clear conception of 



LEARNING TO BE A PASTOR. 53 

the Holy Spirit, they were greatly under His influence 
— going about the work of repentance and prayer for 
themselves, and for their friends, with the same simple 
directness with which they would have entered upon 
any other work. The best praying was that which 
brought the greatest blessing, no matter how rude 
and uncouth the language ; the best exhorting, that 
which brought souls soonest to the Saviour. 

Here Mr. Moody began to learn the true work of 
the Christian pastor. He was brought face to face 
with the sins and sorrows of immortal souls, laid open 
before him, for sympathy and instruction, as con- 
fidingly as he laid them before God for pardon and 
comfort. According to his theory, the penitent sinner 
might immediately become a Christian on the terms 
laid down by the apostle : " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 

To his mind nothing could be easier than this ; and 
to these poor people, uninstructed in the mysteries of 
systematic theology, it also appeared easy. They had 
never heard the distinctions between intellectual faith, 
historic faith, and saving faith ; but they did as they 
were taught, — reached out their dirty hands to take 
Christ, and attended to the washing of the hands 
afterwards. 

It was with inexpressible joy that Moody received 
and instructed the inquirers who came to this little 
meeting. If no new cases appeared from week to 
week, he became anxious, as if something were going 
wrong. He would scan his crowd of boys and girls 
with the greatest eagerness, watching for signs of 
heavenward purpose or softening of heart ; and when 



54 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

he found them he felt as if God owned his work, and 
so was happy. 

The duties thus laid upon him made him increas- 
ingly sensible of his deficiency in knowledge of the 
Word of God. The light and comfort he might give 
from his own experience of grace were not enough 
without some appropriate text of Scripture. 

Up to this time his method of reading the Bible 
had been to open the book at random, and begin 
with the first chapter that caught his eye. He had 
none of those helps to the study of the Scripture in 
the form of notes, commentaries, Bible dictionaries, 
and the like : he did not even own a concordance. 
His preparations for his work from day to day, and 
from Sunday to Sunday, were made on this wise; — 
He would go over to Mr. Stillson's lodgings, some 
distance from his own, and together they would have 
a little season of prayer for God's blessing upon the 
work they were about to do. Then they would go 
out to visit the sick, search for new scholars, read the 
New Testament, exhort, sing, and pray, as occasion 
offered ; trusting to the Lord to give them words to 
speak. 

One day Mr. Stillson, who from the first was 
strongly impressed that his young friend had a great 
career before him, said, — 

" Moody, if you want to draw wine out of a cask, it 
is needful first to put some in. You are all the time 
talking, and you ought to begin to study." 

To this Moody assented; and Mr. Stillson pro- 
ceeded to mark out for him a course of reading, 
intending to assist him in enlarging his education. 



A NARROW ESCAPE. 55 

Among the books selected was Miiller's "Life of 
Trust"; But before he had fairly entered upon this 
short road to learning, his preceptor, through some 
sudden change in business matters, left the city, and 
returned to his home in Rochester. Thus narrowly 
did Moody escape becoming a bookish man. 



S6 



CHAPTER V. 

INCIDENTS OF THE WORK AT THE NORTH 
MARKET MISSION. 

LEFT now to himself, he went on in his old ways, 
reading his Testament, telling his experience, 
working up the scenes of every-day life into effective 
exhortations and addresses, and absorbing knowledge 
from everybody and everything around him. 

His beloved mission school went on with increasing 
power and interest. Nothing was left untried which 
could help to save these neglected people, — who, in 
their turn, loved and trusted him for his patient and 
earnest work in the Saviour's name. 

The Rev. Dr. Savage, then the Western Secretary of 
the Boston Tract Society, gives an account of a jubilee 
held in an old rookery opposite Market Hall, on a 
certain thanksgiving night. The " old rookery " was 
none other than the ex-saloon, now Moody's prayer- 
room, which he describes as a most forlorn and wretched 
place, dimly lighted, and with no fire, where thirty or 
forty children had assembled to hold the jubilee ; every 
one of them bearing marks of poverty, if not of actual 
want. 



A THANKSGIVING JUBILEE. 57 

The name, jubilee, and the time, Thanksgiving 
evening, would naturally suggest a festival, or supper ; 
but such a thing being quite beyond their means, 
Moody had appointed a kind of love-feast, at which 
every one was to tell what he was most thankful for. 

One little fellow, who had no other relative in the 
world but a decrepit old grandfather, with whom he 
lived in the greatest poverty, had become a Christian 
some time before, and, like others of the children, was 
trying to do a little home-missionary work on his own 
account. When his turn came to tell what he was 
most thankful for, he said, — 

"There was that big fellow, * Butcher Kilroy,' who 
acted so bad that nobody would have him, and he 
had to be turned out of one class after another, till I 
was afraid he would be turned out of the school. It 
took me a long time to get him to come, and I begged 
for him to stay. I used to pray to Jesus every day 
to give him a new heart, and I felt pretty sure 
He would if we didn't turn him out. By-and-by 
Butcher Kilroy began to want to be a Christian, and 
now he is converted ; and that is what makes this 
Thanksgiving the happiest one in all my life." 

Mr. Stillson mentions another desperate case, of a 
boy they found on The Sands. He was a sort of chief 
of a gang of gutter-snipes, who, partly because they 
admired him and partly because they were afraid of 
him, allowed him to be a perfect tyrant over them. 
It was a long time before they could get near enough 
to this young ruffian to speak to him ; but even he 
at last was caught with the missionary sugar, and 
invited to come to the mission school. 



58 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

It was a cold day in February ; but the only gar- 
ment he had was a man's old overcoat, so ragged that 
it had to be stitched together around his body, giving 
him the appearance of being sewed up in a great 
dirty bag. A big pair of shoes, and papers wrapped 
around his legs, completed his winter costume. In 
this outfit he made his appearance one Sunday, at 
the door of the North Market School. Moody, catch- 
ing sight of him, gave him his hand, pulled him in, 
and, marching with him the whole length of the room, 
gave him a place in a class, with the same kindness 
and attention he would have shown to the best dressed 
boy on the North Side. 

At sight of this wretched waif, a stranger visiting 
the school was moved to tears. After the exercises 
were over, he took him to his house, and gave him a 
full suit of clothes belonging to his own son. 

The wild lad, thus civilized in appearance, continued 
to attend the school; and at length, one by one, brought 
all his followers with him. "That lad," said Mr. 
Stillson, " is now a Christian gentleman, in receipt 
of a large salary, and superintendent of a Sunday- 
school in one of our large cities." 

Many were the exciting scenes through which 
Moody passed, as month after month he continued 
the work of visitation. Sometimes he was " shamefully 
entreated " ; and on more than one occasion he was 
actually in danger of becoming a martyr to the cause. 
One Sunday morning he was visiting some Roman 
Catholic families for the purpose of bringing their 
children to his school, when a powerful man, who had 
sworn to kill him, sprang upon him with a heavy club, 



A RUN FOR DEAR LIFE. 59 

before he knew he was in danger. It was a run for 
dear life. The Sands were in an uproar. Some of the 
papists cheered on their man, knowing if he caught 
the heretic it would be all over with him ; while those 
who were friendly dared not come to his rescue, for 
fear of his wrathful pursuer. But it was all lost 
labour to drive Moody away from a place where there 
were any children whom he felt ought to come to his 
school. On this occasion, as on others, he escaped by 
being very swift-footed ; but he was sore pressed by 
his enemy, who seemed really in hopes of putting an 
end to his heretical labours by putting an end to his 
life. Not at all discouraged, he went back the next 
Sunday, and kept on going again and again, till at last 
his gentleness and patience disarmed his adversary, 
who gave him no further trouble. 

In his explorations one Saturday evening, he 
found a jug of whisky in a house, which the men had 
brought home to drink next day. They were all away 
from home ; but Moody gave the women a rousing 
temperance lecture, and persuaded them to let him 
empty the whisky into the street. Early on Sunday 
afternoon he returned, as he had promised, to take the 
children with him whom the women had consented to 
send to his school. But the men of the house were 
lying in wait to give him a pounding. He had touched 
them at a tender point, and they thirsted for revenge. 
The situation was desperate. One of them had 
stepped between him and the door before he was 
aware of it, and all were about to pounce upon him, 
when Moody arrested proceedings on this wise, — 

" See here, now, my men, if you are going to whip 



60 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

me for spilling the whisky, you might at least give 
me time to say my prayers." 

So unusual a proposal attracted their attention, and 
they agreed to let him pray before they thrashed him, 
thinking it would add just so much to their sport. 
Moody at once dropped upon his knees and began 
to pray. Such praying those rough fellows had 
never heard. At first they were astonished, then they 
were interested, then they were softened ; and when 
he had finished his prayer they gathered around him, 
gave him their hands, declared he was a good fellow, 
— and in a few minutes Moody was triumphantly 
marching towards the North Market Hall, with all 
the children of the house at his heels. 

No class of persons was neglected, except those 
who had no need of attention. The great majority 
of those people, whatever other qualifications they 
lacked for being saved, had at least this one — they 
were sinners. The worst as well as the best who 
came to the great school, or the little prayer-meeting, 
found Mr. Moody, or some of his workers, holding 
the door open for them, and inviting them to enter 
the kingdom of heaven. Among his scholars were 
the daughters of prostitutes and keepers of brothels, 
who begged him to take them away from the place 
in which they seemed destined to certain ruin ; and, 
in more instances than one, he has sent them to 
places of safety, in which they have become honoured 
members of Christian families. 

No matter how repulsive the person might be, 
Moody was always ready to help him ; he seemed 
to take the most interest in those who were most 



SINGING IN A WHISKY SHOP. 61 

wretched and needy. Instances enough to fill volumes 
might be given of his successful work for those who 
had always been considered beyond the reach of grace 
and salvation. 

Among the worst places in this field was a sailors 
boarding-house, which was continually haunted by 
a rough, quarrelsome crowd. This place, vile and 
dangerous to the last degree, Moody and his friend 
ventured to enter. They were set upon, and threatened 
with broken heads if they did not leave immediately ; 
but remembering that " a soft answer turneth away 
wrath," they gently replied that they meant no harm, 
and, as proof of their kind intentions, offered to sing 
a song. This task, of course, fell to the lot of Still- 
son ; for Moody never could sing a note : and he 
immediately struck up the hymn commencing — 

" O how happy are they 
Who the Saviour obey, 
And have laid up their treasures above ! " 

The crowd listened to the singing with evident en- 
joyment; it was better singing than they were accus- 
tomed to. When the hymn was finished, Moody 
followed with prayer. From that day they were 
privileged characters in that house, and were held in 
high respect by all the inmates. They captured the 
children of the keeper of the den for the North 
Market Mission, — every one of whom was afterwards 
brought to Christ. 

It was not often that their visits to saloons resulted 
so favourably as in the following case. Going into a 
drinking den one Saturday night, when the carousal 



62 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

was at its highest, they asked permission to leave 
some religious papers for the men who were drinking 
at the little tables around the room. This being done, 
they entered into conversation with the keeper of the 
place, and presently drew out the fact that his parents 
were Christian people. The question instantly fol- 
lowed, " Do they know you are selling liquor ? " 

The man hesitated, and seemed deeply affected. 
They gave him a kindly word, and then bade him 
good-night. But they had- not gone far before one 
said to the other, — 

" We have neglected our duty ; let us go back and 
pray with that man." 

They immediately turned back, re-entered the 
saloon, begged the keeper's pardon for having neg- 
lected to pray with him, and, kneeling there in the 
sawdust, Moody offered a prayer which seemed the 
direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Mr. Stillson 
says, — 

" I never heard Moody pray like that before ; it 
seemed as if the baptism of the Holy One was upon 
him." 

Two weeks afterwards one of them met the man 
in the street, who informed him that he had given 
up the saloon business, had left off drinking, and 
would die in the poor-house rather than sell any 
more liquor. 

The most miserable of the many wretched families 
they met in all their visitation was one which they 
found one Sunday morning in an attic. The husband, 
who was just on the verge of delirium tremens, had 
become half idiotic from drink, while the wife and 



WONDERFUL TRANSFORMATIONS. 63 

children were half dead from starvation. The first 
thing done was to give them something to eat. Next 
they held a temperance meeting, and persuaded the 
man to sign the pledge, a copy of which they usually 
carried with them ; and by way of impressing it upon 
his stupid senses, they made him kneel down and 
place his hand upon the pledge, while they prayed 
to God to give him strength to keep it. The next 
Sunday the whole family, decently clad, came to the 
mission school. 

An evening or two afterwards, passing by the 
same house, the man hailed them from his attic win- 
dow, and threw them down a piece of silver, saying, 
" I believe in that Sunday-school, and I want to take 
a little stock in it." 

On Mr. Stillson's return to Chicago, six years after- 
wards, he was saluted by a gentlemanly stranger, who 
proved to be none other than the poor man who had 
thrown him the money out of the attic window — now 
a prosperous man of business, with a beautiful home 
of his own, and himself a leading member in a 
thriving church. 

One of Moody's strong points was his ability to 
keep every one around him hard at work. His 
method may be described in a single word — leader- 
ship. He was not skilful in giving minute direc- 
tions, but he was always ahead, and they learned 
to follow him, and to do as he did. He was as ready 
to go down, as to go up, to find and save, a sinner ; 
indeed, he was always ready to go anywhere or do 
anything which gave promise of such a result. It 
was impossible to be with him and not feel the 



64 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

contagion of his energy and faith. Scholars as well 
as teachers caught it from him, and began to be 
missionaries on their own account, searching out and 
bringing in new scholars, and keeping the enthusiasm 
of the school always at fever heat. 

Prizes were sometimes offered for the largest num- 
ber of new scholars brought in. On one occasion he 
presented the most successful young missionary with 
a pet lamb, — a somewhat unusual gift at a Sunday- 
school, but one which served as a striking and valuable 
object-lesson, which Moody was not slow to use. 

Among the band of young converts, which all the 
time increased around him, was a little girl, whose 
father owned a small vessel, with which he freighted 
lumber. Having given her own heart to the Saviour, 
she tried to persuade her father to do the same. But 
he was a man having no taste for religion, though he 
was very fond of the child — whom he took with him 
on a certain voyage, during which she tried in vain to 
establish a prayer-meeting in the little cabin, and to 
convert some of the crew. On arriving at the lumber 
camp, this little missionary commenced a Sunday- 
school, as nearly as possible like the North Market 
Mission. Not content with this, and hearing of 
another encampment of woodcutters similar to their 
own, she opened a second school among them also. 
During the severe northern winter she presided 
personally over both these institutions ; riding on 
horseback through the woods every Sabbath, after 
the manner of the early Methodist pioneers. 

It may be supposed that these two schools in the 
woods were of a very simple character, since the littie 



THE LITTLE MISSIONARY. 65 

girl herself was the entire force of officers and teachers; 
and all the library and literature in use among them 
was her own little copy of the New Testament. The 
results of her labour cannot now be given ; but it 
is easy to imagine the tender interest with which 
those rough woodsmen sat at the feet of their child- 
missionary, charmed by her Christian courage, and 
cheered by her simple faith. 

The lumber season being over, the little vessel 
started for Chicago. During the voyage a terrible 
storm arose, disabling the craft, and driving her 
rapidly toward a lee shore. The crew being com- 
pletely exhausted, and expecting in a few minutes to 
be drowned, begged the little girl to pray for them, 
— which she did, with the greatest composure. When 
she had told the good Lord all about them, and 
asked Him to take them out of their danger, if He 
thought best, and, above all things, to forgive their 
sins and make them ready for heaven, she began, in 
a clear, sweet voice, to sing that little Sunday-sch®ol 
hymn, — 

a We are joyously voyaging over the main, 
Bound for the evergreen shore." 

With the song new strength and hope seemed to 
come to the arms and hearts of the crew ; and renew- 
ing their efforts to weather the point which threatened 
their destruction, and aided, perhaps, by some slight 
change in the wind or abatement of the storm, the 
little craft weathered the rocks of the headland close 
enough to toss a biscuit ashore, and then swung out 
safely on the open course for home. 



66 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

The visit of President Lincoln was a notable fact 
in the history of the school. 

Mr. Farwell, hearing that the President-elect was in 
the city, and being all the time on the look-out for 
something to keep up the spirit of the school, called 
at his hotel, and obtained from Mrs. Lincoln a promise, 
on the President's behalf, to visit the mission on the 
following Sunday. At the appointed time a carriage 
was sent for him, to the house of a prominent citizen, 
who had made a dinner-party for his distinguished 
guest. On being told that the carriage had come, the 
great man left his half-finished dinner, took a hasty 
leave of the elegant company, and started for the 
North Market Hall. 

As they drove along, Mr. Lincoln said that talking 
to Sunday-schools was out of his line, and requested 
that he should not be asked to make a speech. But 
on his being introduced as the President-elect of the 
United States of America, the enthusiasm of those 
wild embryo citizens broke out beyond all bounds ; 
and, yielding to their rough persuasions, Mr. Lincoln, 
for the first and only time in his life, made a Sunday- 
school address. He told them they were in the 
right place, and learning the right things. What they 
learned out of the Bible would certainly be of use 
to them, if they practised it ; and their chances of 
coming to be honourable men and women, he said, 
would very much depend upon the attention they 
gave to the lessons which were taught them in that 
Sunday-school. 

In all the address there was no word about religion, 
— for it was not until overwhelmed with the cares of 



TRYING SOLOMON'S PRESCRIPTION. 67 

office, and heart-broken with the horrors of war, that 
the great man himself learned what religion was ; and 
he was too honest to speak in that presence, or any- 
other, on a subject he did not understand. 

A few months after, Fort Sumpter was fired upon ; 
and when the call was issued for an army of seventy- 
five thousand men, about sixty of the big rough boys 
who listened to him that day answered to the Presi- 
dent's call. They had seen the man ; his fatherly face 
and lofty form was still before them, and his calm, 
earnest words still echoed in their hearts : it was their 
President who was calling for them ; and they were 
quite ready to go. 

To keep such an assembly in order was of course 
impossible ; though a degree of confusion which 
would have been fatal to an ordinary Sunday-school 
was no serious objection here. But sometimes a 
wild young barbarian would make his appearance, 
defying all authority, and actually disturbing the 
meeting ! 

There was one big fellow in particular who insisted 
on bringing his street manners into the schoolroom. 
All kinds of moral suasion seemed to be wasted on 
him. He was too big to be frightened, and too 
ignorant to be shamed. After bearing with him for 
a long time, during which he continued to grow worse 
instead of better, Moody and his friends began to 
fear that they had at last found one boy for whom 
nothing could be done. A great many evil spirits had 
been cast out by the influence of that school, but this 
one seemed determined to stay. To turn a scholar 
away as hopelessly bad would be a disgraceful con- 



68 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

fession of failure ; besides, it was contrary to all their 
ideas of the Gospel to shut this young ruffian out from 
the means of grace, when he was in such evident need 
of them. 

A solemn council was held one Sunday, but no one 
could think of any new method of reaching this des- 
perate case. All the week it lay heavy on Moody's 
mind. The next Sabbath the big fellow appeared, 
more uproarious than ever ; — there was actual danger 
of his breaking up the school. 

On this memorable day Mr. Moody determined to 
try the last remedy. His ample physical endowment 
for missionary work has already been mentioned, 
— of which on this day he made a very effective use. 
Coming suddenly upon the fellow, in the middle of 
the crowded hall, he seized him with both hands, fairly 
lifted him off his legs, carried him into a little ante- 
room, locked the door, and proceeded to apply the 
treatment recommended by Solomon. This was by 
no means an easy task, for the culprit was as strong 
and active and savage as a wolf. The noise of the 
struggle awakened the most lively interest of the 
school, and by way of diversion Mr. Farwell started a 
song. Thus on the two sides of that bolted door two 
widely different means of grace were in simultaneous 
operation. 

In due course of time Moody and his pupil emerged 
from the ante-room, both greatly flushed, and one 
completely subdued. 

" It was hard work," said Moody ; " but I think we 
have saved him." 

Only a little while ago Mr, Farwell met this very 



AN ARGUMENT WITH AN INFIDEL. 69 



boy, now grown to a man, at the noon prayer-meeting. 
They recognised each other, and heartily agreed that 
Moody was right in applying desperate remedies for 
desperate diseases. 

After that his school was no more disturbed by such 
ruffians. He had shown a new claim to their admira- 
tion and respect. Order thus enforced became sacred 
in the opinion of all. 

A lad — the one nicknamed "Indian" in the picture 
— coming into the school one day, found a raw recruit 
sitting with his cap on. Instantly he drew it off, and 
hit the offender a blow between the eyes which laid 
him sprawling on the floor. " I'll learn you better 
than to wear your hat in this school," said he ; and 
then he passed quietly to his place, feeling the high 
satisfaction of having done his duty. 

One of Moody's friends reported a family to him 
where there were several children who were "due" 
at the North Market School, but whose father was a 
notorious infidel rum-seller, and would not let them 
come. 

The missionary at once called upon him ; but as soon 
as he made known his errand he was obliged to " get 
out of that place " very quickly, in order to save his 
head. Again and again he called, only to be driven 
away with curses and blasphemies. " I would rather 
my son should be a thief, and my daughter a harlot, 
than have you make fools and Christians of them over 
there at your Sunday-school," said the desperate man. 
But still Moody would not give up the case. 

One day, finding the man in a little better humour 
than usual, he asked him if he had ever read the New 



70 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK, 

Testament, — to which the publican replied that he had 
not, and on his part inquired if Moody had ever read 
Paine's "Age of Reason." Finding he had never 
done so, the man proposed to read the Testament if 
he would read the " Age of Reason." To this Moody 
at once agreed. 

" He had the best of the bargain ; but it gave me 
a chance to call again to bring him the book," said 
Moody. 

After wading through that mass of infidel abomi- 
nations, he called on the publican again, to see how 
he got on with the Testament ; but found him full of 
objections and hot for debate. 

" See here, young man," said he ; " you are inviting 
me and my family to go to meeting : now you may 
have a meeting here if you like." 

"What! will you let me preach here in your 
saloon ? " 

"Yes." 

"And will you bring in your family, and let me 
bring in the neighbours ? " 

" Yes. But mind, you are not to do all the talking. 
I and my friends will have something to say." 

" All right. You shall have forty-five minutes, and 
I will have fifteen." 

The time for the meeting was set, but when Moody 
reached the place he found that the company had 
removed to a larger house in the neighbourhood, 
where a great crowd of atheists, blasphemers, and 
wild characters in great variety, were waiting for a 
chance to make mincemeat of the young missionary, 
and use up the New Testament for ever. 



THE RESULT. 7 i 



" You shall begin," said Moody. 

Upon this they began to ask him questions. 

" No questions ! " said he. " I haven't come to 
argue with you, but to preach Christ to you. Go on 
and say what you like, and then I will speak." 

Then they began to talk among themselves ; but it 
was not long before they quarrelled over their own 
different unbeliefs, so that what began as a debate 
was in danger of ending in a fight. 

" Order ! Your time is up," said Moody. " I am 
in the habit of beginning my addresses with prayer. 
Let us pray." 

" Stop ! stop ! " said one. " There's no use in your 
praying. Besides, your Bible says there must be 
' two agreed ' if there is to be any praying ; and 
you are all alone." 

Without attempting to correct this false quotation, 
Moody replied that perhaps some of them might 
feel like praying before he got through ; and so he 
opened his heart to God. 

When he had finished, a little boy who had been 
converted in the Mission School, and had come with 
his friend to this strange meeting, began to pray. 
His childish voice and simple faith at once attracted 
the closest attention. As he went on telling the 
Lord all about those wicked men, and begging Him 
to help them to believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy 
Ghost fell upon the assembly. A great solemnity 
came over those hard-hearted infidels and scoffers ; 
there was not a dry eye in the room. Pretty soon 
they began to be frightened. They rushed out, some 
by one door and some by the other — did not stop to 



72 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

hear a word of the sermon, but fled from the place as 
if it had been haunted. 

As a result of this meeting, Moody captured all the 
old infidel's children for his Sunday-school ; and, a 
little while after, the man himself stood up in the 
noonday prayer-meeting, and begged them to pray 
for his miserable soul. 

Striking out in all directions, taking no thought of 
the prejudices or passions of those he met, but urging 
them all to come at once to Christ, and to the North 
Market Mission, it was impossible but that he should 
make a good many enemies. One old Roman Catho- 
lic woman, whose children he was inviting to his Sun- 
day-school, seized a butcher's knife and rushed out to 
kill him. But he easily got away. 

Three ruffians, who had threatened him with a beat- 
ing, came into his prayer-room one night just after 
the meeting was over, when there was no one present 
but himself and a lad. Knowing their errand, he 
invited them to sit down till he had gathered up 
his hymnbooks and Testaments, at the same time 
motioning the lad to leave. 

Unlike his first place of meeting, this room was 
lighted with gas, a single jet of which was burning. 
Towards this he made his way, picking up his books 
as he went along; and then, as quick as a flash, he 
turned out the light, sprang over the benches in the 
darkness, and was off before his enemies suspected his 
design. 

Such slight annoyances as these, however, soon 
ceased to disturb his mind. He became accustomed 
to them. But what did really worry him was the 



PRA YING WITH A BISHOP. 73 

Catholic boys disturbing his meetings and breaking 
the windows of the place in which they were held. 

When the strain on his patience came to be too 
severe, Moody determined to strike at the root of 
the matter ; and accordingly went to Bishop Duggan, 
the Romish prelate of Chicago, and laid his grievance 
before him. He told the bishop that he was trying 
to do good, in a part of the city which everybody 
else had neglected ; and that it was a shame that the 
members of the bishop's church should break the 
windows of his schoolroom. 

The zeal and boldness of the man surprised and 
delighted the bishop ; who promised that the lambs 
of his flock should hereafter be duly restrained. 
Moody, thus encouraged, went on to say that he often 
came upon sick people who were Roman Catholics ; 
he should be very glad to pray with them and relieve 
them, but they were so suspicious of him that they 
would not allow him to come near them. Now, if the 
bishop would give him a good word to those people, 
it would help him amazingly in his work of chanty. 

Such a request from a heretical Protestant was 
probably never made of a Catholic bishop before. 
But he very kindly replied that he should be most 
happy to give the recommendation if Mr. Moody 
would only join the Catholic Church ; telling him at 
the same time he seemed to be too good and valuable 
a man to be a heretic. 

" I am afraid that would hinder me in my work 
among the Protestants," said Moody. 

11 Not at all," answered the bishop. 

"What! do you mean to say that I could go to 

4* 



74 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

the noon prayer-meeting, and pray with all kinds of 
Christian people — Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, 
all together — just as I do now?" 

" Oh yes," replied the bishop ; " if it were necessary, 
you might do that." 

" So, then, Protestants and Catholics can pray 
together, can they ? " 

"Yes." 

" Well, bishop, this is a very important matter, and 
ought to be attended to at once. No man wants to 
belong to the true Church more than I do. I wish 
you would pray for me right here, that God would 
show me His true Church, and help me to be a 
worthy member of it." 

Of course the prelate could not refuse ; so they 
kneeled down together, and the bishop prayed very 
lovingly for the heretic, and when he had finished, 
the heretic began to pray for the bishop. 

From that day to the day of his death Bishop Dug- 
gan and Mr. Moody were good friends. The bishop 
made no progress in converting him, it is true ; but 
he stopped his wild young parishioners from breaking 
the prayer-room windows ; and if only Moody would 
have joined the Church of Rome there is no telling to 
what high dignities he might have come ! 

This incident was published recently in London, 
and a Catholic priest who read it called on Mr. Moody, 
and actually laboured with him for a long time, with 
the utmost zeal and earnestness, in the hope that he 
might be persuaded into the Church of Peter and Mary. 

" If you would only join the true Church," said the 
priest, " you would be the greatest man in England." 



THE PRIESTS APPEAL. 75 

But, as may easily be supposed, this kind of argu- 
ment made no impression upon a man who is more 
honoured in bringing thousands of lost sinners to 
Christ than he would be by a seat in the chair of 
St. Peter himself. 

According to his idea, it is of little consequence 
whether a man is Catholic or Protestant, so long 
as he is not truly converted ; and, as will be seen 
hereafter, in the account of his work in Ireland, peni- 
tent sinners of both these great classes are alike 
invited to the blessings of salvation, and come, under 
his ministry, to an experience of grace by the same 
simple faith in Christ. 



76 



CHAPTER VI. 

MOODY JOINS THE YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSO- 
CIATION.— THE END OF HIS BUSINESS CAREER. 

THE great revival of 1857-8 led to organizing the 
Young Men's Christian Association of Chicago. 

Like many other similar bodies, it was largely- 
made up of elderly persons, who managed its affairs 
for the benefit of the young men till they should be 
able to manage them for themselves. 

Its first important work was the establishment of 
a daily noon prayer-meeting, after the manner of the 
Fulton Street prayer-meeting in New York ; which, 
during the winter and spring, was very well attended. 
But after a while the revival impetus was lost, and 
the meetings grew smaller and smaller, till at last 
they seemed likely to die. From the first Moody 
had made himself conspicuous in these meetings by 
his blunt manners and bold attacks upon fashionable 
sins, such as tippling, the use of tobacco, going to the 
theatre, playing billiards, and other loaferish games. 
He was very severe against professors of religion who 
wish to enjoy as many of the pleasures of sin as pos- 
sible, without spoiling their hopes of heaven — Chris- 
tians who are so nearly like the people of the world 



THE NOON MEETING SAVED. 77 

that, except on Sunday, it is very hard to tell the 
difference. 

On this account he came to be looked upon with 
disfavour. Many sensitive people left off attending 
the noon prayer-meetings for fear of this bold brother, 
in whose eyes sin was sin wherever it might be found, 
and who was so insensible to the dignities of wealth, 
fashion, station, and age, that no offender was safe 
from being held up on the point of his spear. 

But Moody was eminently fit for the kingdom of 
heaven in this respect : ,viz., having once put his hand 
to the plough, he never looked back. Therefore the 
coldness of some of his brethren produced no dis- 
couragement in his mind. A man who had achieved 
such success in the North Market Mission, which had 
been started against the advice of every clergyman in 
the neighbourhood, was not likely to be troubled by 
criticisms on his rhetoric or his manners. 

The waning interest in the noon prayer-meeting 
roused him to new efforts on its behalf. When the 
attendance fell to half a dozen he was one of the six ; 
and when there were but three he was one of the 
three, — the other two very likely being his good 
friends J. V. Farwell and B. F. Jacobs. 

One day, all these brethren being out of town, 
nobody went to the prayer-meeting but one old 
Scotchwoman. This excellent person set great store 
by the noon meeting, and,, when no one else appeared, 
she determined to hold it herself rather than have it 
fail even for a single day. f So, after waiting a long 
time, she put on her spectacles, went forward to the 
leader's desk, read a passage of Scripture, talked it 



78 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

over to herself, for the comfort of her old heart, and 
then offered prayer for the languishing meeting, and 
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon it, and 
upon the city. Prayer being ended, she sung a psalm, 
and, the time having thus been all improved, she went 
comfortably home, feeling that she had done her duty, 
gained a blessing, and saved the noon prayer-meeting 
from utter extinction. 

On relating her solitary experience, some of the 
brethren were deeply impressed by it. Mr. Moody at 
once set about the business of bringing in recruits ; and 
so well did he succeed, that very soon there was a 
large and regular attendance, and the meeting began 
to be marked with the presence of the Spirit of the 
Lord. 

All this time he had steadily pursued his purpose 
of making his fortune in business. His energy had 
secured for him an increase of salary and a percent- 
age on his sales. The same tactics which he used 
so successfully in the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion and the Sunday-school worked equally well in 
the store. He was always on the outlook for buyers ; 
he was never idle. Other salesmen in his line com- 
plained that he captured their customers, and pushed 
himself forward, regardless of established business 
etiquette. But, for the life of him, he never could 
see why a country merchant, with money in his 
pocket to be invested in boots and shoes, was not 
the rightful customer of the first man who could 
persuade him to buy ; so he paid no more attention 
to the traditional courtesies of business than he did 
to denominational lines in religion. Nevertheless, his 



HIS BUSINESS HABITS. 79 

employers, during all his business life, testify to his 
rigid truthfulness and his earnest Christian character, 
though he was so ambitious of success as to be liable 
to frequent errors in judgment. One of them says : — 

u We regarded him as an excellent salesman, but a 
poor judge of credits. In one particular instance he 
sold goods, amounting to over two hundred dollars, 
to a man whom we found rated as ' doubtful ' in the 
Mercantile Directory, and therefore refused to send 
the goods. But Moody at once came to the rescue 
of his customer, declared him to be ' as good as the 
Bank of England/ and offered to be responsible for 
the bill. On this we sent the goods ; and when the 
money was due, sure enough it was Moody who paid it." 

Another of his old employers, in speaking of his 
last year in business, says : — 

" His habits were economical, and he might have 
saved money if he had not spent so much on his 
Mission. I have seen as many as twenty children 
come into the store at once, to be fitted out with 
shoes." 

Of course all the money for this purpose did not 
come out of his moderate earnings ; but what he 
did not give himself he obtained from others for 
this purpose, and thus a great deal of his time, as 
well as money, was spent on his Mission School. 

During such hours as he devoted to business he 
gave himself up to it with the greatest interest. One 
gentleman says : — 

"He would never sit down in the store, to chat or 
read the paper, as the other clerks did when there 
were no customers ; but as soon as he had served one 



80 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

buyer he was on the look-out for another ; if none 
appeared, he would start off to the hotels or depots, 
or walk the streets, in search of one. He would some- 
times stand on the side-walk in front of his place of 
business, looking eagerly up and down for a man who 
had the appearance of a merchant from the country ; 
and some of his fellow-clerks were accustomed laugh- 
ingly to say, ' There is the spider again, watching for 
any.'" 

He was silent and preoccupied in manner, when 
not closely engaged in business ; and seemed to have 
an undercurrent of thought concerning his Mission 
School, into which he instinctively fell at every 
moment of leisure. His business neighbours seem 
to have thought him unsocial, except those who, 
like him, were interested in Christian work ; but with 
his friends at the Young Men's Christian Association, 
and at the Mission, he was reckoned the very soul of 
good fellowship. 

After two years with his old friend Wiswall, he 
entered the house of Mr. C. N. Henderson, who had 
become acquainted with him at his Mission, and had 
taken great interest in him and his work. He now 
became a commercial traveller, making long excur- 
sions into the country ; but, to whatever distance his 
travels might lead him, he was sure to be at home 
every Sunday. This large amount of extra travel — 
for he was only allowed his expenses in returning 
once a month — would have been a serious matter 
for his slender purse, but for the kindness of his 
friend Colonel Hammond, the distinguished Railway 
Manager, who at that time was superintendent of 



HE GIVES UP BUSINESS. Si 

the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railroad. The 
Colonel especially delighted to clear his brain of 
business, and warm his great and tender heart, by 
helping Moody in his school on Sunday afternoons ; 
and, finding that his presence was essential to its 
success, he gave his young friend a free pass over the 
lines of his road, to bring him home three Saturdays 
out of the four. 

On the death of his good friend Henderson, Moody 
at once removed to the house of Messrs. Buel, Hill, 
and Granger, with whom he remained about a year. 
During all this time he was more and more a mis- 
sionary and less and less a merchant, until, not sud- 
denly, but by degrees, he came to be so full of his 
religious work as to lose all interest in everything else. 

This was his last connection with the world of 
business. Following the leadings of the Holy Spirit, 
whereby he had now become dead to the world, he 
gave up his long-cherished hope of making his fortune, 
and thenceforth devoted himself to the work of saving 
souls. 

"I met him one day," says Mr. Hill, "soon after he 
left our house, and said to him, ' Moody, what are you 
doing ? ' 

" ' I am at work for Jesus Christ/ was the reply. 

" His answer shocked me a little at first ; but on 
thinking it over, I felt that it was a fair statement of 
the facts in the case. That was just what he was 
doing ; and his work for the Lord was just as real 
and as vigorous as it had always been for his other 
employers. 

"He left our house," says Mr. Hill, " under the 



82 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

pleasantest circumstances, having maintained his 
Christian character unblemished ; and we all bade 
him God-speed in the work to which we believe he 
was called." 

Mr. C. M. Henderson, the nephew and successor of 
Mr. C. N. Henderson, and clerk with him during his 
uncle's life, speaks of Moody thus : — 

" For fifteen years since Mr. Moody left us, I have 
watched him, assisted him, and believed in him." 

Having bidden the last good-bye to business, he 
said to his friend Mr. Jacobs, — 

" I have decided to give God all my time." 

" But how are you going to live ? " asked his friend. 

" God will provide for me, if He wishes me to keep 
on, and I shall keep on till I am obliged to stop," 
was Moody's reply. 

That resolution has never been broken. From 
that day to this he has never received a salary from 
any society or individual, or engaged in any business 
or speculation. God has provided for him and his 
family; sometimes, indeed, sorely trying his faith, and 
bringing him even in sight of actual want, but never 
suffering him to come quite into it. He had laid by 
a small sum of money out of his earnings, a part of 
which he invested for future use, reserving about a 
thousand dollars to pay his first year's expenses. 
He was now the happiest man in Illinois. He was 
rich ; he was free ; his hands and heart were full of 
work for Christ ; he could devote as much time as he 
chose to his Mission, week-days as well as Sundays, 
and still do something for his second love — the Young 
Men's Christian Association. 



THE CRUSE OF OIL RUNS LOW. 83 

Not to lighten his labours, but only to increase their 
amount, he invested part of his thousand dollars in a 
pony. 

Recognising his pre-eminent ability in that direc- 
tion, the Young Men's Christian Association had 
appointed him Chairman of the Visiting Committee 
to the sick and to strangers. In the duties of 
this office he scoured the city in all directions ; and 
very soon Moody on his pony became a familiar 
sight, especially in the regions of The Sands, the 
Association Rooms, and the North Market Hall. 
An old resident on the North Side, who was familiar 
with him in those days, declares that he would 
chase the wild small-fry up the streets and down the 
alleys, and, after a Sunday morning's search for new 
scholars, would emerge from some dirty lane, or court, 
his pony literally covered with ragged urchins, followed 
by others of the same sort, holding on by the tail, 
catching by the stirrups, or clinging to each other's 
rags ; and these he would march in grand procession 
down to the North Market Sunday School. 

The thousand dollars, which had seemed so large 
to him, were soon consumed by the Mission, the 
Association, and the various works of charity which 
multiplied on his hands. The rest of his small for- 
tune took some kind of wings and flew away ; and, 
before long, he found himself obliged, like Miiller, 
whose life was one of the few books he had read, to 
rely solely on the promise, " Trust in the Lord and 
do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily 
thou shalt be fed." 

The increasing attendance at the noon prayer- 



«4 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

meeting had occasioned its' removal to a large back 
room, in the Methodist Church block. To this place 
Moody removed his residence, — that is, removed him- 
self. Having no longer any money, he determined 
fully to test the question whether God would really 
take care of him in his new work. At length he was 
brought to the necessity of sleeping on the benches 
of the prayer-room, and living on crackers and cheese. 
But he kept on with his work all the same. He col- 
lected considerable sums of money for the poor, and 
for the various works of charity and religion carried 
on by the Association ; but he would not use 
a penny of it for himself, because not given for that 
specific purpose. 

Under these privations a faith less firmly fixed on 
God must have begun to fail. But the Lord had not 
forgotten His servant, who, like Peter of old, had 
" left all and followed Him " ; He was preparing a 
confirmation of His promise, " And all things whatso- 
ever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.'* 

In the days when the noon prayer-meeting lan- 
guished, and was ready to die, a Mr. Field, from 
Wisconsin, came to Chicago to perfect a certain 
mechanical invention. He was one of the recruits 
who rallied to its standard in that crisis of the battle ; 
and, being " full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," he 
became at once a valuable helper in the work of the 
Association, and also connected himself with the 
North Market School. 

For many years he had suffered from a disease in 
one of his legs : it had become stiff and crooked, and 
thus practically shorter than the other — obliging him 



A PRAYER CURE. 85 

to walk with a crutch, or cane ; but the work of the 
Mission so absorbed him that, forgetting his lame- 
ness, he searched the highways and byways, after 
the fashion of his leader, till excessive use aggravated 
the disease, and he began to suffer great pain. Be- 
coming alarmed, he applied to a physician one Friday 
evening, who appointed an examination of the case 
for the following Monday morning. 

On Sunday it was noticed that Mr. Field came to 
the school without his cane. At the close of the 
exercises he took Mr. Moody and Mr. Farwell up to 
his room, bounding up the stairs two steps at a time, 
and told them his wonderful experience, as follows : — 

" You know how lame I have been, and that my 
leg had become so painful that I had decided to go 
to a doctor. Last night I crept out to the nearest 
bath-rooms, and returned to bed in great distress. 
While I lay there, the idea seemed impressed upon 
me that the Lord could cure me as well as the doctor. 
I called to mind how He healed the man sick with 
the palsy ; and I said to myself, ' I will ask Him to 
cure me in the same way.' Committing my case 
wholly to the Lord, I soon fell asleep ; and dreamed 
that I went to the surgeon, as he had appointed, and 
that he cut open my leg, performed some operation 
which I did not comprehend, and immediately closed 
the wound again — not hurting me in the least, or even 
leaving a scar. 

" My first thought, on awaking in the morning, 
was that all the pain was gone. The lame leg felt 
strangely well. Throwing off the bedclothes, I was 
astonished to find it straightened, so as to be of equal 



86 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

length with the other. Leaping from the bed, I 
found I could use it with freedom ; and, remembering 
my dream, I began to praise God for answering my 
prayer and working on me a miracle of healing. 

" While I thought upon this wonderful experience, 
I observed that the muscles of the leg were still 
shrunken, as before. Then I said to myself, 'There 
must be some mistake ; this cannot be God's work, 
for when He does anything He does it thoroughly 
and well.' But, presently, I remembered that it is 
not God's plan to do for us what we can do for 
ourselves. Those muscles had withered from disuse ; 
by using them they would become full and strong, 
like the others. Then all doubt departed ; and I have 
called you to join me in praising God, who is able to 
save people in these days just as He did in the days 
of His flesh." 

" Since then," says Mr. Farwell, "he has walked upon 
two good legs, like any other man ; and the shrunken 
muscles, by means of proper exercise, have, as he 
expected, returned to their normal proportions." 

This sight of God's healing hand on the body of 
his friend came, like a vision of light and hope, to 
cheer the heart which was almost faltering, and to 
strengthen the hands which were beginning to hang 
down. It was evident that God did not forget His 
people : prayer was still a power ; the promises still 
held good ; and, in the strength of this vision, Moody 
seemed to overleap all difficulties, — he reached out his 
hand to grasp the hand of the Lord. Presently, with- 
out a word from him, some of his friends began to 
wonder how he was living; and, finding out thy 



Y. M. C. A. WORK. 87 

poverty of his bed and board, they insisted on sup- 
plying him with abundant comforts of life. 

So it was evident that the Lord still intended him 
to " keep on." 

Mr. S. A. Kean, for the last fifteen years treasurer of 
the Chicago Young Men's Christian Association, says : — 

" Moody found a congenial field of labour in the 
Association. When we joined, it had but few mem- 
bers ; and, though it was called a Young Men's Asso- 
ciation, it was composed and managed almost entirely 
by middle-aged or elderly men. As a consequence, 
its methods and policy were quiet and conservative. 
Moody's advent among them was like a stiff north- 
west breeze. His zeal and devotion were the life 
and hope of the Association ; but he shocked the nice 
sense of propriety of some of these gentlemen by 
carrying its work among a class of people who had 
hitherto been neglected, under the impression that 
its proper line of effort was among the higher classes 
of young men. 

"Under Moody's leadership the Young Men's 
Christian Association became, like the North Market 
Mission, a free and popular institution, — extending 
its influence to all classes of society, and bringing 
the cultured and wealthy to the assistance of the 
ignorant and the poor. 

u Mr. Moody was fertile in schemes and expedients 
for raising money for the Lord's work ; but of the many 
tens of thousands of dollars which he secured for the 
Association, he received nothing whatever for himself. 

" He always refused a salary, saying it would em- 
barrass him, and limit his freedom to go at a moment's 



88 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

notice wherever the Lord might call him. I was 
treasurer of the Association from the time of his 
first connection with it ; and I do not remember * to 
have paid him a dollar, either for his services or the 
expenses incidental to his work. Neither do I remem- 
ber any appropriation being made for his assistance, 
though he often needed and always deserved it." 

To his friends, who sometimes blamed him for his 
neglect of his worldly interests, he would say, — 

" God is rich, and I am working for Him." 

His favourite text of Scripture was, "This one 
thing I do ; forgetting those things which are behind, 
and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 
I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus." 

It must not be inferred from this that his whole 
life thereafter was one of privation. His faith was 
severely tried again and again ; but, taking the years 
together, the Lord supplied His servant comfortably, 
and sometimes bountifully. His life of faith became 
a rest and a luxury to him ; for, being absolutely 
sure of his daily bread, all care for the morrow was 
banished, and, with a single eye and a perfect heart, 
he was able to give himself to the work of the Lord. 

It was not long before the Young Men's Christian 
Association began to make itself felt in all the mis- 
sion work of the city. Moody, the acknowledged 
chief in this department, devised a system whereby 
each mission school should be visited by, and make 

* Mr. Kean is obliged to speak from memory, as all the 
Young Men's Christian Association books were burned in the 
great fire. 



DEVELOPING LAY TALENT. 89 

reports to, the Association ; and also for bringing it 
under the care and patronage of some strong church 
and congregation. This plan secured two benefits : 
the feeble missions were strengthened and encouraged, 
and the churches and their home schools were aroused 
to new activity. 

Another good result from the plan of the Associa- 
tion was the development of a great deal of lay talent. 
Hitherto, by far the larger part of the work of the 
churches, had been left to clerical hands. The minis- 
try was generally understood to be a special and 
exclusive office. 

To this rule Moody was a notable exception. 

While yet a man of business, as we have already seen, 
the most important spiritual work of the pastorate fell 
to his hands ; and it is safe to say that he was the 
minister of Christ to more souls and bodies than any 
ordained clergyman in the city. Certain eminent 
divines regarded him as an intruder into the holy 
office ; the Young Men's Christian Association ap- 
peared to them as a sort of fifth wheel to a coach, 
or, worse than that, a harmful diversion of money 
and labour from the old-established, traditional 
channels. Some of the lay brethren attained a skill 
in explaining the Scriptures, and a power of exhorta*- 
tion, which was dangerously similar to preaching ; 
and, if this were permitted to go on, who could tell 
how long it might be before the Association would 
attempt to set itself up as a new denomination ? 

On the other hand, the brethren of the Association 
felt that the Church had crystallized around certain 
forms, and that some new means must be brought 

5 



90 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

into use to do that work among the poor and the 
outcast which the Church was leaving undone. Their 
success in bringing into Christ's kingdom large num- 
bers of persons who had seemed to be utterly repro- 
bate caused a great deal of astonishment, and stirred 
up sluggish Christians to duty. Like the influence of 
the North Market Mission on other Sunday-schools, 
the Association became a blessing to all the evan- 
gelical churches in the city ; and at length it was able 
to command the confidence and co-operation of 
almost the entire Christian community. 

The report of the first year's work of the Committee 
of Visitation, of which Mr. Moody was chairman, 
gives the number of families visited 554, and the 
amount of money bestowed in charity $2350. Of 
the spiritual results there is no record this side of 
heaven ; but, in many cases, " man's extremity was 
God's opportunity." Many souls came into Christ's 
kingdom, at the invitation of Mr. Moody and his 
relief committee, who had stayed outside for years 
because they could not go to church in respectable 
style, and so did not care to go at all. 

The poor now had the Gospel preached unto them, 
sometimes almost in spite of themselves. All the 
missions were active and thriving ; the noon prayer- 
meeting, though not always select, was generally 
forcible ; and the blessing of Heaven rested on the 
man whose faith and zeal had roused the whole 
evangelical brotherhood to a higher sense of their 
power and privilege as believers in Christ and Hi§ 
Gospel, and set so many of them at work. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WAR COMMITTEE.— CAMP AND FIELD. 

WAR is the carnival of hell. Its legions march 
with every army, and bivouac in every camp. 

It does, indeed, furnish brilliant figures of speech, 
with which the apostle stirs the blood of laggard 
soldiers of Christ ; and such a man as Hedley 
Vicars, or such a regiment as Havelock's Saints, 
may help to relieve its awful record of death and 
crime. But wars waged for personal or national 
pride have always been flames in which God per- 
mitted bad men to burn themselves. Rarely has 
the world been made substantially better by mankind 
killing one another. 

But the war which saved the American Union and 
crushed out slavery was the occasion for a grand 
system of Christian helpfulness, whereby unnumbered 
thousands of sick and wounded men were saved from 
death, and unknown thousands of souls were saved 
from a life of sin. 

No thoughtful person can study the history of the 
Sanitary and Christian Commissions without feeling 
sure that, while the devils were making " a long pull, 
a strong pull, and a pull altogether," Jesus Christ, the 



9* D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

Captain of salvation, had His forces also in the field. 
Christian men in camps and battles, Cnristian women 
in hospitals and prisons, and good angels everywhere, 
were working with might and main together, to save 
the souls and bodies of the soldiers — gathering in the 
great harvest which death was constantly ripening. 
In the midst of the horrors of war God was working 
miracles of grace, the like of which no other war- 
history has ever seen. Every campaign was begun 
and ended with a revival. 

In the work of the Christian Commission Mr. Moody, 
already well known at home, was first brought into 
public notice. At the breaking out of the war, in 1861, 
the devotional committee of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, of which Mr. Moody was chairman, found 
a new line of work made ready to their hands. The 
first 75,000 volunteers were under way so quickly 
that very little could be done in the form of religious 
work among them. But when the second call, for 
300,000 more, was made, and a camp of rendezvous 
was established near the southern limits of the city 
of Chicago, Moody and his brethren saw their great 
opportunity, which they instantly and eagerly im- 
proved. On the arrival of the first regiment, ordered 
to Camp Douglas for instruction, the committee was 
on the ground, and before the tents were fairly 
pitched a camp prayer-meeting was in progress. 
Other regiments arriving, and encamping in various 
portions of the city, were promptly visited and sup- 
plied with religious reading. Public worship on the 
Sabbath and prayer-meetings during the week were 
established within easy reach of every boy in blue. 



CHRISTIAN WORK IN CAMP. 93 

It was a matter of no little surprise and joy to the 
soldiers, many of whom had come lrom churches, 
Sunday-schools, and Christian homes, to hear them- 
selves saluted in the name of Christ almost before 
they could stack their arms, and to have the very 
first tent which was pitched in their camp put to 
its first use as a place for prayer. Christian zeal 
kept pace with patriotism. Mr. Moody and his com- 
mittee were obliged to call for help : a hundred and 
fifty clergymen and laymen promptly responded to 
the call. Every evening eight or ten meetings were 
held in different camps; and an almost continual 
service, within reach of every regiment, on the 
Sabbath. Over fifteen hundred of these services 
were held in and around Chicago by the Associa- 
tion during the war. 

Mr. Jacobs says : — 

" In these meetings Mr. Moody seemed almost 
ubiquitous ; he would hasten from one barrack and 
camp to another, day and night, week-days and 
Sundays, praying, exhorting, conversing personally 
with the men about their souls, and revelling in the 
abundant work and swift success which the war had 
brought within his reach." 

The chapel of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion at Camp Douglas was the first camp chapel in 
existence — being built in the October of 1861. 

Meanwhile many of the soldier converts had been 
sent to the field, in Kentucky ; and, feeling the want 
of the means of grace which they had left behind, 
they sent repeated calls to the Chicago brethren to 
come down and establish similar meetings among 



94 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

them. In response, to this invitation Mr. Moody was 
sent to the army, near Fort Donelson — being the 
first regular army delegate from Chicago. Similar 
labours by other Associations led to a convention 
in Norfolk, Virginia, on the 16th of November, i86i> 
where the United States Christian Commission 
was projected, of which Mr. George H. Stuart, of 
Philadelphia, was president. Mr. J. V. Farwell was 
made the chairman of Mr. Moody's War Com- 
mittee ; and when the Christian Commission was 
organized, he was placed on its managing board. 

The news of the battle of Fort Donelson, on the 
15 th of February, 1862, was the signal for sending to 
the field a special committee of relief, composed of 
the Rev. Robert Patterson, D.D., Mr. Moody, and 
Mr. Jacobs. With them went a number of other 
brethren from Chicago, eager to minister to the sick 
and wounded and dying. 

On board the steamer from Cairo a discussion 
arose as to the most efficient way of doing the new 
work before them. Mr. Moody, full of the idea 
of saving souls, urged that the very first business in 
every case was to find out whether the sick or dying 
man were a child of God ; if so, then it was not 
necessary to spend much time on him — he being safe 
enough already. If not, he was to be pointed at 
once to the Saviour. 

Robert Collyer, the Unitarian, took the sanitary 
view of the question. He declared that the first 
comforts to be administered to these men who were 
ready to perish were whisky, brandy, milk-punch, and 
the like. " Brace up the nerves of the poor fellows," 



PATRIOTISM FOR PIETY. 95 

/■ ■ — — — — ■ — -=■ ■ — • 

said he, "and help to keep them alive, rather than 
begin by trying to prepare them for death." 

The Rev. Dr. Patton, Congregationalist, thought 
that both the brethren were right, and both were 
wrong. He was in favour of a double treatment, varied 
to suit each particular case ; though agreeing with 
Mr. Moody that, if the poor fellow were actually 
dying, the thing to be done was to offer him a short 
and swift salvation, by telling him the story of the 
thief on the cross. 

Mr. Collyer was on his feet in a moment. " What ! " 
said he, "are we to tell our dying heroes, who have gone 
forth to fight our battles and save our flag, while we 
stay comfortably at home, — are we to talk to them 
about thieves ? " 

The storm of applause which greeted this patriotic 
speech showed that the crowd on the boat, the most 
of whom knew but little, and cared still less, about 
questions of theology, were full of that strange belief 
common to both armies in all battles, that patriotism 
is one form of piety, and that, somehow or other, 
though in a way not laid down in the Bible, to die 
for one's country is a quick way of getting to heaven. 
This doctrine was taught by the ancient heathen 
orators and poets ; later by Mohammed ; still later 
by Joseph Smith, the Mormon. The Russian 
priests and officers taught it to their soldiers in the 
Crimea ; while the leaders of the Southern army are 
reported to have been in the same faith. But the 
wide experience of the Christian Commission with 
thousands of brave men at the point of death proved 
that Mr. Moody was right ; for there is no record of 



Z>. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 



a soldier dying with heaven in sight, unless by faith 
he first had seen the Saviour on the cross. No man, 
be he soldier or civilian, is redeemed by his own death. 

Back and forth, between Chicago and the various 
camps and battle-fields, with tireless vigour and jubi- 
lant faith, Mr. Moody toiled and travelled, during 
the four terrible years of war ; which, by the work 
of the Christian Commission, were transformed from 
four great harvests of death into four great har- 
vests of souls for the garner of the Lord in heaven. 
Wave after wave of patriotism and Christian devotion 
swept over the land. Love of country and love of 
Christ were mingled, so that no one could tell where 
one ended and the other began. 

Like the men who go down to the sea in ships, 
Moody and his brethren saw God's wonders, in camp 
and field. Having so many sinners to point to the 
Saviour, and so little time in which to do it, they 
prayed to the Lord to do His " short work." So 
many men found the Saviour, and died while they 
were praying for them, that they came to have a 
strange familiarity with heaven. These souls seemed 
to be messengers between them and God, carrying up 
continually the fresh and glowing record of the work 
they were doing in His name. And so simple and 
easy did it become for them to " ask and receive," that 
they were rather surprised if the penitent for whose 
conversion they prayed was not blessed before they 
reached the Amen. 

One of the Christian Commissioners gives the fol- 
lowing instance of another kind of answer to prayer: — 

"A party of our men found themselves one night 



PRAYING FOR RATIONS. 97 

on a battle-field, in charge of a great many wounded 
soldiers, who, by reason of the sudden retreat of the 
army, were left wholly without shelter or supplies, 
Having done their best for the poor fellows — bringing 
them water from a distant brook, and searching the 
haversacks of the dead for rations — they began to 
say to themselves, and one another, ' These weak and 
wounded men must have food, or they will die. The 
army is out of reach, and there is no village for many 
miles : what are we to do ? ' 

" ' Pray to God to send us bread,' said one. 

'•'That night, in the midst of the dead and dying, 
they held a little prayer-meeting, telling the Lord all 
about the case, and begging Him to send them bread 
immediately; though from whence it could come they 
had not the most remote idea. All night long they 
plied their work of mercy. With the first ray of dawn 
the sound of an approaching waggon caught their 
ears ; and presently, through the mists of the morning, 
appeared a great Dutch farm waggon, piled to the 
very top with loaves of bread. 

"On their asking the driver where he came from, 
and who sent him, he replied : — 

' When I went to bed last night I knew that the 
army was gone, and I could not sleep for thinking 
of the poor feilows who always have to stay behind. 
Something seemed to say to me, "What will those poor 
fellows do for something to eat ? " It came to me so 
strong that I waked up my old wife, and told her what 
was the matter. We had only a little bread in the 
house ; and while my wife was making some more I 
took my team and went around to all my neighbours, 



98 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

making them get up and give me all the bread in their 
houses, telling them it was for the wounded soldiers 
on the battle-field. When I got home my waggon 
was full ; my old wife piled her baking on the top, 
and I started off to bring the bread to the boys, feel- 
ing just as if the Lord Himself were sending me/ " 

No wonder that men working year after year amid 
such scenes as these should have learned how to claim 
the promises in prayer ! They acquired the habit of 
talking to God with the same simplicity and direct- 
ness as with one another ; their faith increased con- 
tinually by the sight of the swift procession of Divine 
mercies which was all the time sweeping by. 

These wonders of grace in camp and field were 
reported at the Chicago noon prayer-meeting by 
Mr. Moody and his co-labourers, on their return 
from their frequent excursions to the front. By this 
means a very intimate connection was kept up between 
the work in the army and the work at home, and the 
meeting became intensely interesting — especially to 
those whose husbands, sons, and brothers, were fight- 
ing for the Union. 

Strangely enough, as though no other place were so 
near to heaven, and no other believers had such access 
to the ear of the Lord, people from all over the State, 
and even from neighbouring States, used to send 
requests for prayer to be read at the Chicago noon 
prayer-meeting. These requests were received by 
thousands; and often, in quick succession, came the 
tidings of glorious answers to prayer, with offerings of 
glad thanksgiving, and sometimes gifts of money and 
supplies for helping on the work of the Commission. 



A REVIVAL IN PRISON. 99 

In this way the Chicago noon meeting became the 
very centre and heart of the religious life of the whole 
North-West. 

One of the marvels of those days was the revival 
of religion among the rebel prisoners, — about ten 
thousand of whom had been taken at Fort Donelson 
and brought to Camp Douglas, which was trans- 
formed from a camp of instruction into a prison. Mr. 
Moody was impressed with the thought that these 
poor men needed the means of grace fully as much as 
the Union soldiers ; but to gain access to them was a 
matter of extreme difficulty. One day he succeeded 
in obtaining a permit to visit them, which he gave 
to his friend Mr. Hawley, the Young Men's Christian 
Association Secretary ; and himself took a can of 
kerosene oil to light up with, it being towards evening, 
— hoping, in the capacity of a servant, to be allowed 
to pass the guard along with his more clerical-looking 
friend. But it was of no use ; the guard would not 
let in two men on one permit, though Mr. Moody ex- 
hibited his can of oil, and declared he was only going 
with the other gentleman to help along the meeting. 

The earnest discussion was overheard by the officer 
of the day, who came up to see what was the matter ; 
and, recognising Mr. Moody, he took him to head- 
quarters, vouched for his being all right, and obtained 
a pass for him to go in and hold meetings with the 
prisoners as often as he liked. In a few minutes he 
rejoined his friend Hawley in the prison. They an- 
nounced the purpose of their visit ; and the men, being 
both surprised and pleased, gathered around them 
while they read the Scriptures, exhorted, and prayed. 



ioo D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

At the very first meeting the power of God was 
manifest, and a large number of the prisoners were 
inquiring what they must do to be saved. Meetings 
were held with them every afternoon and evening. 
The flame of revival spread throughout their entire 
camp. The tidings flew over the whole city and 
county, and produced the most intense excitement. 
Great numbers of clergymen and lay workers begged 
for the privilege of assisting in the meetings. It was 
held to be a peculiar honour to lead one of those 
enemies to Christ. Great numbers were soundly 
converted ; and, as it was not thought expedient to 
establish a church among them, they were organized 
into a Young Men's Christian Association. Bibles, 
Testaments, and other religious books and papers, 
were bountifully supplied to them. They were treated 
as brethren in Christ : and when their time came to 
be exchanged, they went to their Southern homes 
thanking God for their bonds, in which His servants 
had found them out, and where they, though prisoners 
of war, had found peace and liberty in the Saviour. 

The report of the Army Committee for the year 
1865 shows a distribution of 1537 Bibles, 20,565 
Testaments, 1 000 prayer-books, 2025 hymn-books, 
24,896 other religious books, 127,545 religious news- 
papers, and 43,450 pages of tracts, besides 28,400 
literary papers and magazines. The Camp Douglas 
chapel was erected at a cost of $2300, and a soldiers' 
library and reading-room were furnished by the 
Association, in a building erected by the Christian 
Commission. This was all in addition to the regular 
home work. 



ONE YEARS WORK. ioi 



An Employment Bureau was established this year, 
chiefly for the benefit of the many wounded soldiers 
who were continually applying to the Association for 
assistance. Situations were found for 1435 men, 124 
boys, and 718 girls, besides transient employment for 
many persons who were unable to go out to service. 

In all this work Mr. Moody bore an important and 
honourable part. His frequent excursions to battle- 
fields and camps made him, more than any other 
man, the medium of communication between the 
work in the army and the work at home. He was 
on the field after the battles of Pittsburgh Landing, 
Shiloh, and Murfreesboro', with the army at Cleve- 
land and Chattanooga, and was one of the first to 
enter Richmond, where he ministered alike to friend 
and foe. 

On the 23rd of April, 1865, was held, in Mr. Crosby's 
splendid new Opera House — then thrown open to 
the public for the first time — the memorable third 
anniversary of the north-western branch of the 
Christian Commission. To describe the enthusiasm 
of that meeting would be as impossible as for those 
who were present to forget it. The report of the 
year's work, partially given above, surprised and 
delighted the vast assembly ; while, to those who 
had been chiefly engaged in it, well-earned praise 
and honour were not wanting. Among other honours 
conferred, a committee of clergymen presented to Mr. 
J. V. Farwell, chairman of the War Committee, an 
elegantly bound copy of the Holy Scriptures, accom- 
panied by an address, expressing their high estimate 
of the value of his services as chairman of the 



102 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK.- 

north-western branch of the United States Christian 
Commission. 

To Mr. Moody, on this occasion, very high com- 
pliments were paid, which, to a man more mindful of 
worldly glory, must have been inspiring. But com- 
pliments were of no value to him. He regarded them 
as temptations and snares. He would sometimes say, 
" Strike me rather than praise me." So long as his 
omnivorous appetite for work was satisfied, nothing 
else was needed to make him one of the happiest men 
alive. 

But it is easy to see, in the light of his subse- 
quent history, that the Lord was training him in this 
school of the war for still greater victories in the name 
of Jesus. In prisons and battles, in the midst of blood 
and agony and death, the Holy Spirit taught him 
God's own simple method of salvation, and the short, 
straight road to Christ and heaven. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MR. MOODY'S CHURCH. 

THE work of the Christian Commission, in which 
Mr. Moody was so greatly blessed, and by 
reason of which he began to be had in reputation, 
was, after all, only incidental. His chief care and 
labour was still his dear North Market Mission. 

The new impulse given to every Christian enter- 
prise by the army work of the Association was 
notably felt in Mr. Moody's school. During the 
first two years of the war its rapid increase demanded 
increased accommodation ; and its leader set about 
the task of building an edifice suited to its wants. 

In 1863 a commodious chapel, with tower and 
spire, was erected in Illinois Street, not very far from 
the old Market Hall, at the cost of about $20,000 — 
which money was collected by Mr. Moody himself. 

The school now numbered nearly a thousand ; and 
from among the scholars and their parents about 
three hundred persons had given their hearts to the 
Saviour. As the number of converts increased, it 
began to appear that, within this school, the Lord was 
building up a church. At first Mr. Moody urged them 
to give their names to some orthodox pastor, with 



104 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

which they might hold their membership and celebiate 
the sacraments, though, for the most part, worship- 
ping and working with their brethren of the Mission. It 
was the custom here, as well as at the Young Men's 
Christian Association, to inquire of converts in what 
communion they had been brought up. If the young 
believer were of a Methodist family, some brother at 
the Mission, connected with a Methodist church, would 
introduce him to its pastor ; in the same way, if he 
had been a Presbyterian, Baptist, etc., etc., he was 
introduced to some church of his own denomination. 

Thus was avoided the difficulty so often arising 
out of union services ; and no church had any reason 
to complain that those who were due at its commu- 
nions were improperly led elsewhere. This plan was 
moderately successful in connection with the noon 
prayer-meeting, and other services of the Association, 
in which a good many sinners were all the time 
coming to Christ ; but it was by no means a success 
with the converts at the North Market Mission. The 
most of these had no religious antecedents whatever. 
Some of them came from a depth of heathenism so 
far below the Church of God that, of its forms, orders, 
and divisions, they knew and cared absolutely nothing. 
But there was a strong tie binding them to each 
other which it was found impossible to transfer to 
any other body of worshippers. They had come up 
together out of poverty and ignorance ; they had 
learned their duty in the same school, and under the 
same teacher ; and thus their fellowship of suffering, 
as well as their fellowship of faith, was something 
with which no stranger might intermeddle. 



ORGANIZING A CHURCH. 105 

It must also be confessed that, of all the Christian 
congregations then in Chicago, there was not one to 
whose care these persons, who had nothing to com- 
mend them except the fact that they were saved 
sinners, could safely be confided. The very reasons 
for which they needed sympathy and attention were 
those which would prevent them from receiving it. 
Thus the necessity for a church of their own became 
increasingly evident. 

Before the war — in which tears had softened their 
hearts, and fires had melted them together — the clergy 
of the city stood aloof from Moody and his Mission. 
But working side by side with him among the 
wounded and dying, they learned to love him more 
as they came to know him better, and so began to 
give him their counsel and fellowship, which he had 
all the while so greatly desired. That religious 
conceit, whose father is Zeal and whose mother is 
Ignorance, and which is so often found in the heads 
of men who come to sudden success outside of the 
organized Church, was not found in Mr. Moody. 
He never doubted the value of the Church or the 
ministry, in any of the forms they had adopted. 
But none of these forms could meet the needs of 
his particular congregation. Therefore, after much 
prayer for Divine guidance, he invited all the city 
ministers of his acquaintance, with a number of promi- 
nent laymen, to meet in council, at the Illinois 
Street chapel, for the purpose of organizing a Chris- 
tian communion for the three hundred people who 
had been converted under his ministry. 

This council is remembered with peculiar interest. 



106 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

There was a goodly attendance, and all the evan- 
gelical denominations were represented. 

Prayer having been offered, Mr. Moody arose, 
and stated the business on which he had called them 
together. He gave a vivid picture of the Mission, and 
of its success in bringing sinners to Christ ; told how he 
had failed in all his efforts to lead them to unite with 
other congregations ; and explained the evident neces- 
sity for organizing them into a church by themselves, 
of which he, who had been the means of saving them, 
should be the pastor, recognised as such by the 
Christian world. He desired to form an orderly con- 
gregation of believers, among whom the ordinances of 
the Gospel should be celebrated and the work of the 
Lord carried on. 

As he proceeded with his remarks, one after another 
of the prevailing forms seemed to disappear from 
among the possibilities of the case. First of all, his 

good friend, Dr. , rector of the Episcopal church, 

felt compelled to withdraw from the council, though 
expressing his pleasure in the good work which he could 
not officially recognise. Next, an excellent Presby- 
terian D.D. announced his sympathy with Mr. Moody 
and his Mission, but of course, if he were to assist 
in organizing a church, it must be a Presbyterian 
church. A Baptist brother laboured under a similar 
difficulty ; for the proposed pastor of this congregation 
had not gone down into the water, or come up out 
of the water; the ordinance in his case having been 
administered by Dr. Kirk after the manner suggested 
by the text, " I will sprinkle clean water upon you, 
and ye shall be clean." A Methodist pastor, a fast 



THE TROUBLES OF A COUNCIL. 107 

friend and fellow-worker with Mr. Moody, was 
sorry that these good people, who showed so strong a 
" desire to flee from the wrath to come/' could not be 
organized into a Metholist church, with class-meetings, 
love-feasts, quarterly meetings, and camp-meetings ; 
all of which seemed so well suited to their spiritual 
needs. But Mr. Moody could, not be persuaded to 
join Conference ; neither did he propose an itinerant 
ministry for his church, though he was so great a 
traveller himself. Besides, there were still some 
strong points of Calvinism in his creed, which the 
Methodist brother regretted ; 'therefore, he could not 
give him his hand officially, though, as a friend and 
brother, he sat the council through. 

All the factors of the problem had now been 
eliminated but the Congregationalists, to whom the 
duty fell of organizing "The Illinois Street Church"; 
a fact which they still recount with no little satisfac- 
tion, since their method excelled all others on this 
notable occasion, in being the only one simple enough 
to meet the wants of this peculiar people, whose only 
notion of a church was a company of saved sinners, 
with Mr. Moody for their pastor and Jesus Christ as 
the Head over all. 

After their manner, then, the church was duly 
established ; and the candidates for membership, who 
had been examined concerning their experience 
of grace, received the ordinance of baptism at the 
hands of the ministry present, and then celebrated 
their first communion together with tears and songs 
of joy. 

Afterwards, when members were to be received by 



108 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

baptism, a neighbouring v pastor was usually invited 
to perform the service. But at the Lord's Supper, 
where Christ alone is Master of the feast, ali es- 
tablished forms were dispensed with, and the com- 
pany of brethren and sisters broke the bread and 
drank the wine together, the pastor reading or reciting, 
out of the Gospel, the history of the last supper of 
the disciples with their Lord. 

This church, though organized by Congregation- 
alists, has never been reckoned a Congregational 
church. Its minister has received no ordination, save 
that of the Spirit and Providence of God ; his name 
has never been published in the Minutes of that body 
or any other ; and the statistics of the society have 
never been published at all. It is a strictly inde- 
pendent organization, asking no authority of men, 
but abundantly blessed of the Lord. It endeavours to 
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ; 
and, with this end in view, everything which could 
debar from its fellowship any lover of the Lord Jesus 
Christ has been carefully excluded from its form of 
discipline and confession of faith. The following is 
its Manual complete, as revised by Mr. Moody and 
his brethren a short time previous to his last departure 
for England. The change in name to " The Chicago 
Avenue Church " suggests the destruction of the first 
edifice in the Great Fire ; and the building of a new 
and spacious house of worship at the point above 
indicated. 

ARTICLES OF ADMISSION. 
On Lord's Day morning, such believers as have been 
previously examined by the Committee and accepted by 



ARTICLES OF FAITH. 109 

xa> * ' ~ ——————— 

vote of the Church will be publicly received into fellow- 
Ship ; they having subscribed to the following 

ARTICLES OF FAITH. 
(MEMBERS STAND WHILE THE ARTICLES ARE BEING READ.) 

I. We believe in the only true God (John xvii. 3), the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (Matt, xxviii. T9). 
Wno created all things (Rev. iv. n), and upholds all things 
by the word of His power ^Heb. i. 3), in whom we live, and 
move, and have our being (Acts xvii. 28). A God of truth, 
and without iniquity, just and right is He (Deut. xxxii. 4); 
and He shall judge the world (Psalm ix. 8). 

il. We believe all Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correc- 
tion, for instruction in righteousness : that the man of 
God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good 
works (2 Tim. iii. 16-17). 

III. \Ve believe that by one man sin entered into the 
world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, 
for that all have sinned (Rom. v. 12), and judgment came 
upon all men to condemnation (Rom. v. 18). For the 
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. vi. 23). 

IV. We believe there is none other name under heaven, 
given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts iv. 12). 
For other loundation can no man lay than that is laid, which 
is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. iii. 11). We also believe that Christ 
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He 
was buried, and that He rose again the third day according 
to the Scriptures (1 Cor. xv. 3-4), and sat down on the 
right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. i. 3), now to appear 
in the presence of God for us (Heb. ix. 24). 

V. We believe God so loved the world that He gave His 
only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life (John iii. 16); and he 
that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he 
believeth not the record that God gave of His Son, and that 
is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this 
life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and 
he that hath not the Son of God hath not liie (1 John v. 
10-12}. 



no D. Z. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

VI. We believe that Christ, the Head over all to the 
Church (Eph. i. 22), hath commanded us to baptize in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost 
(Matt, xxviii. 19); and the same night in which He was 
betrayed, took bread • and when He had given thanks, He 
brake it, and said, Take, eat : this is my body, which is 
broken for you ; this do in remembrance of me. After the 
same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, 
saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This 
do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me ; for as 
often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show 
the Lord's death till He come (1 Cor. xi. 23-26). 

In accepting and subscribing to the above articles of faith, 
we by no means set aside or undervalue any of the Scriptures 
of the Old and New Testament, but believe all to be equally 
God's own written Word, given to us through the inspiration 
of the Holy Spirit ; but the knowledge and belief of the 
truth, as stated in our articles of faith, we deem necessary 
to salvation and sound doctrine, and thereby requisite for 
Christian fellowship. 

ADDRESS. 

And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses 
and sins. Wherein in time past ye walked according to the 
course of this world, according to the prince of the power 
of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of 
disobedience : among whom also we all had our conversa- 
tion in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the 
desires of the flesh and of the mind ; and were by nature 
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich 
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even 
when we were dead in- sins, hath quickened us together 
with Christ (by grace ye are saved) ; and hath raised us up 
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in 
Christ Jesus ; that in the ages to come He might show the 
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us 
through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through 
faith ; and that not of yourselves : it is the gift of God. Not 
of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His work- 
manship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which 
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 



THE MANUAL. m 



But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off 
are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For through Him 
we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now, 
therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but 
fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. 
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone ; 
in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth 
unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are 
builded together for an habitation of God through the 
Spirit. (Eph. ii. i-io, 13, 18-22.) 

Praying that the Lord God of peace that brought again 
from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the 
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make 
you perfect in every good work, to do His will, working in 
you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus 
Christ; to whom be glory, for ever and ever. Amen. (Heb. 
xiii. 20-21). 

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATION AND 
GOVERNMENT. 

This body of believers desire to be known only as Chris- 
tians, without reference to any denomination ; yet regarding 
all who hold and preach the truth contained in our articles 
of faith as equally belonging to the same Head ; and are 
thereby free to co-operate and unite with them in carrying 
on the work of our common Master. 

GOVERNMENT. 

The government is vested in the body of believers of 
which the Church is composed. 

OFFICERS. 

The officers of this Church shall consist of Deacons, a 
Clerk, Treasurer, Trustees, and Finance Committee. Other 
officers than those named may be appointed if required. 
All officers shall be members, and shall be elected by ballot. 
All officers of the Church shall be members of the Ex- 
amining Committee, and shall constitute the Executive 
Committee, and shall adopt such measures as they deem 



112 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

advisable, subject to the action of the Church at its business 
meetings. 

DUTIES OF OFFICERS. 

The officers shall take the oversight of the flock, caring 
for their spiritual interests. 

EXAMINING COMMITTEE. 

This Committee shall examine all candidates for member- 
ship, and report to the assembly the names of such as they 
approve of, for their acceptance. It shall be the duty of the 
Committee to gather information concerning the spiritual 
condition of the members ; and upon learning anything 
amiss, to deal with them according to Matt, xviii. 16-18. 
The action of the Committee in matters of discipline shall 
be final. 

CLERK. 

The Clerk shall keep a record of the doings of the 
Church, which record shall be read at each annual meet- 
ing. He shall also keep a record of the membership, and 
make an annual report. 

TREASURER. 

The Treasurer shall receive all moneys due or con- 
tributed, and disburse the same under the direction of the 
Finance Committee, and report at each annual meeting. 

FINANCE COMMITTEE. 

This Committee shall adopt methods for collecting funds 
for the Church, and shall have the general management of 
the finance, subject to the action of the Church. 

TRUSTEES. 

The title of all the property belonging to the Church 
shall be vested in its Trustees — they to keep the same in 
repair. The edifice shall be under the control of the 
officers of the Church for all meetings. 

Calls for Mr. Moody to attend religious meetings, 
revivals, and conventions, became more and more 
frequent ; but his chief work was with his own congre- 



MEETINGS UPON MEETINGS. 113 



gation, which rapidly increased in numbers and in- 
terest, and soon came to be one of the most thriving 
and useful bodies of believers in the city. At present 
it has about four hundred and fifty members, a large 
and vigorous Sunday-school, and an honourable place 
in the community. 

Its success seems largely due to Mr. Moody's 
admirable appointment and division of labour. All 
the members have something to do. The bell in the 
tower of the first church edifice — the gift of a friend 
in New York — was said to ring every night in the 
year for some kind of religious assembly. There were 
not only the ordinary services common to all churches, 
but also men's meetings, young men's meetings, boys' 
meetings, women's meetings, mothers' meetings, girls' 
meetings, Bible meetings, strangers' meetings, Gospel 
meetings, praise meetings, and testimony meetings, — 
each with some distinct character of its own. Some- 
times, in different parts of the chapel on Sunday, and 
at private houses during the week, there were three 
or four of these in progress at once. It was Mr. 
Moody's habit to attend them all, dividing the day or 
evening between them — thus establishing a wonderful 
unity in all the various sections of the work, 

The amount and fervour of religious exercises, all 
the time carried on at this church, could seldom be 
found elsewhere except during a season of revival ; in 
which, if it continued for several weeks, both pastor 
and congregation would be completely exhausted ; a 
reaction would follow, attendance would drop below 
the average, and the minister be forced to ask for a 
vacation, or possibly make a tour for his health, 
6 



114 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

Not so with Mr. Moody and his church. They 
are like old soldiers, hardened by long campaigning, 
or like old sailors, who are so well acquainted with 
hurricanes as not to mind them ; while their captain 
with the nerve and steadiness of a veteran joins the 
enthusiasm of a boy. 

It was impossible that weariness should not some- 
times overtake him ; but he possessed the faculty of 
throwing off all care, and regaining his accustomed 
spirits, in a wonderfully short space of time. 

His old friend Col. Hammond mentions this in- 
stance : — 

"Mr. Moody came to see me one Sunday, after 
his morning service, seeming to be quite tired out. 
He threw himself into a chair and burst out with the 
following exclamations : 

" ' I am used up — can't think, or speak, or do any- 
thing else. There is my meeting at the church to- 
night — you must take it. I have absolutely nothing 
left in me.' 

" Knowing that Mr. Moody never asked help un- 
less he needed it, I promised to take the service off 
his hands. When the time came I went down to 
the Illinois Street Church, and found the house quite 
full. I was about to commence the service, when the 
door opened, and in walked, or rather rushed, Mr. 
Moody, followed by a long procession of young men 
whom he had picked up in saloons and at street 
corners, and brought with him on an errand which, 
to them, was evidently a new one. 

"Mounting the platform with a bound, he seized 
the hymn-book and commenced, and from beginning to 



NEW YEARS CALLS. 115 

end of that service I had nothing to do but to keep 
out of the way. 

" It appeared that he had taken an hour or two of 
rest ; and then, having no care about the evening ser- 
vice on his mind, he took up his old familiar work of 
bringing in recruits, at which he was this time more 
than usually successful. As he led the way to church 
some happy thought struck him, and between the 
street corner and the pulpit he arranged a sermon, 
which was one of the most effective I ever heard him 
preach." 

As a pastor Mr. Moody was a success. He was 
acquainted with all his people, and all his people 
felt acquainted with him. All the poor and unfor- 
tunate who lived in his vicinity were quite famiiiar 
with the number on the door of his modest little 
house. He was able to say continually with Job, 
" The blessing of him that was ready to perish came 
upon me ; and I caused the widow's heart to sing for 
joy. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the 
lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause which 
I knew not I searched out." 

Mr. Hitchcock, for some time a member of his 
household, gives an account of two hundred calls 
which Mr. Moody made one New Year's Day : — 

" At an early hour the omnibus, which was to take 
him and several of his leading men, was at the door; 
and, with a carefully prepared list of residences, they 
began the day's labour. The list included a very 
large proportion of families living in garrets, and the 
upper stories of high tenement houses. On reaching 
a family belonging to his congregation, he would 



Ii6 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

spring out of the 'bus, leap up the stairways, rush into 
the room, and pay his respects as follows : — 

" ' You know me : I am Moody ; this is Deacon 
De Golyer, this is Deacon Thane, this is Brother 
Hitchcock. Are you all well ? Do you all come to 
church and Sunday-school ? Have you all the coal 
you need for the winter ? Let us pray.' And down 
we would all go upon our knees, while Mr. Moody 
offered from fifteen to twenty words of earnest, tender, 
sympathetic supplication, that God would bless the 
man, his wife, and each one of the children, 

" Then, springing to his feet, he would dash on his 
hat, dart through the doorway and down the stairs, 
throwing a hearty ' good-bye ' behind him, leap into 
the 'bus, and off to the next place on his list ; the 
entire exercise occupying about one minute and a half. 

" Before long the horses were tired out, for Moody 
insisted on their going at a run, from one house to 
another ; so the omnibus was abandoned, and the 
party proceeded on foot. One after another his com- 
panions became exhausted with running upstairs and 
downstairs, and across the streets, and kneeling on bare 
floors, and getting up in a hurry ; until, reluctantly, 
but of necessity, they were obliged to relinquish the 
attempt, and the tireless pastor was left to make the 
last of the two hundred calls alone ; after which feat 
he returned home in the highest spirits, and with no 
sense of fatigue, to laugh at his exhausted companions 
for deserting him." 

The next year Mr. Moody would not take a car- 
riage, but went through with a similar social and 
religious work on foot— reminding his friends that, ©n 



GOD IS LOVE. 117 



the previous New Year, they had often felt obliged to 
leave the carriage before reaching the house, lest the 
sight of it should grieve or offend the poor whom they 
visited, to whom it would seem a needless and extrava- 
gant use of money, and who might therefore give their 
pastor and his friends a less sincere and affectionate 
welcome. 

Mr. Moody always liked to have his preaching- 
places decorated with Scripture mottoes. The walls 
of his Illinois Street chapel were profusely orna- 
mented with texts; and even the gas-burners above 
the pulpit were so arranged as to spell out, in great 
letters of light, the precious words, God IS LOVE. 

One Sunday night in winter a poor shivering 
fellow was passing the place, and seeing the vestibule 
door open, went in to shelter himself from the cold. 
The inner door also was ajar; and being curious to see 
for once the inside of a place of worship, he looked 
cautiously in. The strange light above the pulpit at 
once attracted his notice, and the holy words were 
soon imprinted on his heart. He entered the meeting, 
gave himself to Christ, was soon happily converted, 
and became a useful member of Mr. Moody's church. 

The Yokefellows have already been mentioned. 
These young men, organized into a band by Mr. 
Moody, continued their work year after year, distrib- 
uting printed invitations to the service at the Illinois 
Street Church in the morning, and to those at Farwell 
Hall in the evening. They would stand at the street 
corners, on the bridges, and in other places where 
strangers were to be met in crowds ; and so successful 
were they as to send quite a procession of persons to 



Ii8 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

these meetings, some of whom had seldom, if ever, 
entered a house of worship before. One of this band 
gives the following account of how he was captured 
and thrust into the work : — 

" I was a stranger in Chicago. One Sunday morning 
I was standing at a street corner, not very far from 
Mr. Moody's church, staring about, not knowing what 
to do with myself, or which way to go. Mr. Moody, 
who was just then sending out the Yokefellows to 
their morning stations, came up to me, and said, 
familiarly, 'Here, take this pile of papers, stand at 
that corner, and give one to everybody who goes by ! ' 

" Glad to hear a friendly voice, and to have some- 
thing to do, I took the papers, and gave them out as 
directed ; and I have been a member of that band 
ever since." 

It may well be believed that Mr. Moody's system 
of giving every one something to do for Christ has 
brought his church up to a high degree of efficiency. 

Some of those wild lads who once were so trouble- 
some in the old North Market Hall have grown to be 
highly respectable and useful men, well trained in 
the Bible and in the conduct of all sorts of religious 
meetings. 

There are eight or ten of the deacons and leading 
members who are acceptable preachers, and who 
during his long absences from home regularly conduct 
the Sunday services, unless some visiting clergyman 
is at hand. There are others who, by twos and threes, 
are accustomed to hold public worship ; and very 
many of the older members of the church are effective 
Bible readers, prayer leaders, and exhorters. 



A WORKING CHURCH. 119 

Mr. Moody's relations to his church are of the 
closest and tenderest character. Most of them have 
been led to Christ by his ministry, and they feel 
towards him as one might feel towards a man who 
had plunged into the water to save him from drown- 
ing, or climbed into a burning house to pull him out 
of the fire. 

He is more completely with his people, even at four 
thousand miles' distance, than many pastors are who 
are at home all the while. His wishes are regarded 
with the greatest attention. His parting instructions 
to the Sunday-school teachers still ring in their ears. 
His way of doing things is copied — even to a fault, 
sometimes ; and for his sake his people toil 'and 
suffer, if need be, to prove their love for the man who 
came down to them in their sins and poverty, and 
brought them up into the light and joy of the fellow- 
ship of the saints. 

Of course the congregation is not all made up of 
the humbler classes of society. Some of the best 
people of Chicago are identified with the church. 
Wealthy and cultivated ladies and gentlemen, though 
not all of them belonging to his communion, are 
among the teachers and workers ; and some of these, 
it is but just to say, are among the most active and 
useful Christians of the whole North-West. 

Mr. Hitchcock, superintendent of Mr. Moody's Sun- 
day-school, — one of the strangers whom he brought in 
and set about the work of the Lord, and who has kindly 
furnished some of the facts in this volume, says : — 

" If it is announced that a letter is to be read from 
Mr. Moody, we are sure to have a crowded school. 



120 



D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 



He really holds us in his hand, though he has been 
nearly two years absent ; and if he would only come 
home and wind us up again, with a few weeks' work 
among us, we could run on like a clock for a long 
time to come." 

It is a noticeable fact that a very large proportion 
of that congregation are Britons. The English and 
Scotch elements are particularly numerous. These 
persons, away from home and country, find so much 
heartiness and good cheer in that society, and, withal, 
so many familiar methods in the meetings, which 
Mr. Moody has learned abroad, that, more than at 
any other church in the city, they feel attracted here. 

Thus Mr. Moody's church is, like himself, cosmo- 
politan, catholic, and free. 



Ill 



CHAPTER IX. 

FARWELL HALL. 

THE rapid growth of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, and- the great increase of its work 
during the war, called for largely increased accom- 
modation. Their rooms in the Methodist Church 
block were small and over-crowded, and the new 
departments which had been added needed separate 
offices of their own. 

Mr. Moody had removed his residence from the 
benches of the prayer-room, having married, and set up 
housekeeping in a little cottage on the North Side. 
But he had lost none of his interest in the place, which 
had become the headquarters of a wide-spread and 
powerful work of salvation. There was a certain 
dark closet, under a stairway, used for the storage 
of wood and coal ; and, every other nook and corner 
of the building being fully occupied, this was the only 
place he could use as a closet for prayer. Here, 
sometimes alone, and sometimes in company with 
Mr. Jacobs and one or two other kindred spirits, 
he would shut himself up with the Lord, for those 
personal communings which were to him the very 
breath of life. 

6* 



122 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

The pressing need of a new building led them to 
make it a subject of prayer. Various plans for secur- 
irg it had been discussed, prayed over, and abandoned. 
The difficulties in the way were too great ; the amount 
of money which would be required, it seemed im- 
possible to raise. But while other friends of the 
Association despaired, Mr. Moody and his comrades 
kept on praying for a new hall. 

One day, when the need of more spacious rooms had 
been most painfully evident, a great many people 
having been turned away from the noon prayer- 
meeting for want of room, Moody and tuo ot his 
young friends made a solemn covenant with each 
other — which they set forth in writing, and to which 
each one signed his name — pledging continuous efforts 
for a hall till the Lord should give them success. 

At length one of the brethren said : — 

u The only way for us to obtain a new building is 
to elect Mr. Moody president of the Association." 

His recent success in erecting the Illinois Street 
Church, and his well-known boldness and devotion in 
the performance of any duty which the Lord might 
lay upon him, seemed to give great force to this 
suggestion. The proposal, however, met with deter- 
mined opposition. 

The Young Men's Christian Association was now 
the strongest Christian society in the whole North- 
West. Its membership comprised many a scholarly, 
influential, and reverend man, whose name and in- 
fluence as president would add to its dignity and 
popularity. To place in the chair a blunt and 
unlearned man like Mr. Moody, seemed strangely 



BUILDING A HALL. 123 

Mm ' — — " ' ~~ 

radical and inappropriate, to those conservative 
members, whose pride would be sorely wounded in 
following such a leader. Nevertheless he was put in 
nomination for the office. 

The canvass and election were marked with great 
excitement. The respective friends of Mr. Moody 
and the opposing candidate laboured night and day, 
persuading old members and bringing in new ones ; 
and, when the result was reached, Moody was elected 
by a small majority, which event was hailed by his 
friends as the prelude to the ultimate success of their 
building scheme. 

The list of officers and committees of the Associa- 
tion for the year 1865 comprises the names of many 
honoured gentlemen, some of whom have won a 
national fame; but of all those scholars, philanthro- 
pists, and divines, none have come to be so widely 
known and so greatly honoured as this rough but 
devoted man, who reached his office with difficulty 
because of his want of education. 

To the long list of committees a new one was 
added — namely, the Building Committee, of which 
Mr. J. V. Farwell was chairman, assisted by Mr. T. 
M. Avery and Mr. W. L. Lee. 

Mr. Moody's plan of operations was, to organize a 
stock company, with twelve trustees, who should erect 
and hold thebuildingin trust. Subscriptions to the stock 
were to be solicited under the following conditions : — 

The stock was to- bear six per cent, interest, from 
the completion of the building. The interest on this 
stock was to be paid out of the rentals of such por- 
tions of the building as were not needed for the use 



124 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

of the Association, and also from the rents of the 
great hall. The excess of the rentals above the 
interest was to be used by the Association to buy 
up the stock, at par value, until the whole amount 
should be called in ; thus leaving the building the 
unincumbered property of the Association. Its re- 
venues were then to be used in carrying forward its 
various benevolent operations, and in establishing 
and maintaining a free public library and reading- 
room, to be managed by the Association on strictly 
Christian principles. 

The placing of this stock, to the amount of $101, 000, 
was the great financial success of Mr. Moody's life. 
It demonstrated the wisdom, if not the inspiration, 
of those who had put him in charge of the work, 
and secured the erection of a magnificent structure, 
whose name and fame is known throughout the 
English-speaking world. 

The trustees of the building were as follows : T. M. 
Avery, B. F. Jacobs, J. V. Farwell, William L. Lee, 
E. W. Blatchford, H. E. Sargeant, C. H. McCormick, 
George Armour, E. D. L. Sweet, Horace Hurlbut, 
A. R. Scranton, and E. B. McCagg. Of this board 
Mr. Avery was chairman, Mr. Jacobs secretary, and 
Mr. Farwell treasurer. 

The building was located in Madison Street, be- 
tween Clarke and La Salle Streets, in the heart of the 
business, portion of the city. It contained a public 
hall capable of seating ihree thousand persons; a large 
room for the noon prayer-meeting, about one-third 
that size ; a library ; a reading-room ; offices for the 
tract and publication department, the relief depart- 



THE HALL DEDICATED. 125 

ment, and the employment bureau ; private rooms 
for some of the officers who were to live in and have 
charge of the building ; and, last but not least, a 
worthy successor to the little coal-hole closet for 
prayer. 

There were also several fine stores and offices, on 
the rental of which, as has been seen, the ultimate 
financial success of the scheme depended ; but so 
large a portion of the building was devoted to reli- 
gious uses, that subscriptions to its stock had a sweet 
savour of Christian liberality. It might possibly pay 
for itself ; but probably the investment would bring 
larger returns in heaven than on earth. 

The completion of this long-contemplated building 
opened a new era in the history of the Association. 

On Sunday evening, September 29th, 1867, the new 
hall was dedicated to the worship and service of Al- 
mighty God. An immense assembly, representing not 
only the city, but the whole country round, gathered 
to celebrate the event. The great platform was filled 
with ministers of all denominations, and with distin- 
guished visitors from several neighbouring States, 
After the opening devotional exercises, President 
Moody delivered an address, of which the following is 
a brief synopsis : — 

" If there is one thing more than another for which 
Chicago is distinguished, it is the rapidity of its 
growth in size, wealth, and in the extent of its trade. 
But of all the great and swift successes which have 
come to us, none is more striking than that of the 
Young Men's Christian Association. 

"During the last month, while we have been getting 



126 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

in sight of the end, many a man has said to me, 
' Don't get proud/ 

" That is good advice. I feel, more than anything 
else, and more than ever before, that Jesus has accom- 
plished this great result for us. And for this won- 
derful blessing I want you all to praise Him. 

"A few years ago this Association was growing 
weaker and weaker, and at one time it came very near 
dying. Those who organized it made the mistake of 
supposing that if they opened some rooms, and gave 
notice of meetings to be held in them, sinners would 
come there of their own accord to be saved. But 
they were not long in finding out that if they would 
save the lost they must search for them in the by- 
ways and dark places, where they are hidden away 
from the light of Christ and His Gospel. 

" Then we began to go out and bring in. That was 
just what Christ told us to do. And now, because 
we have obeyed Him and gone to work in His way, 
Christ has helped us to build this hall. 

" But it seems to me the Association has just com- 
menced its work. There are those, indeed, who say 
we have reached the limit of our power. But we 
must rally round the Cross ; we must attack and 
capture the whole city for Christ. 

"When I see young men, by thousands, going In 
the way to death, I feel like falling at the feet of Jesus, 
and crying out to Him with prayers and tears to come 
and save them, and to help us to bring them to Him. 

" His answer to our prayers, and His blessing on 
our work, give me faith to believe that a mighty in- 
fluence is yet to go out from us, that shall extend 



MR. MOODY'S ADDRESS. 127 

through this county and every county in the State ; 
through every State in the Union ; and, finally, crossing 
the waters, shall help to bring the whole world to God. 

" We have been on the defensive too long. It is 
time we went into the conflict with all our might : 
straight into the enemy's camp. 

" It has been said that the Association is now fairly 
established, and has all the money it needs ; but if 
we should begin to think so, it would be the death 
of us. When we stop trying to enlarge our work 
for the Lord and raise more money for it, we shall 
become stale and stupid, like some of the rich in- 
stitutions of the Old World, which are settling, down 
into indolence, and dying of dry rot, because they are 
' full and have need of nothing.' We must ask for 
money, money, MORE MONEY, at every meeting ; not 
for the support of the Association — as it now is — but 
to enlarge its operations. 

" We want to build homes for young men and for 
young women ; mission schools ; Magdalen asylums; 
reformatory institutions of various kinds ; as well as 
places of resort for innocent amusement, and mental 
and social culture ; so that there may be no excuse 
for our young people being caught in the traps which 
Satan sets for them all over the city." 

Mr. Moody closed his remarks by showing the 
unsectarian character of the Young Men's Christian 
Association — a society in which people of all Christian 
creeds could live and labour harmoniously together,and 
which, for the first time since the days of the apostles, 
opened up a prospect for the substantial and practical 
unity of all Christ's disciples. 



128 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 



Standing - on the summit of such a splendid success, 
with the light of God's favour shining so brightly on 
him, no wonder he looked out toward the future, 
seeing in it the still greater glory of the Lord ! But, 
at this distance of time, and with his recent record 
in view, one part of Mr. Moody's speech that 
night seems to have been inspired by the spirit of 
prophecy. The grand vision which then rose up 
before him has already taken the form of history, 
even in the very order in which he declared it. 

By its admirable system the Association first made 
itself felt in every part of the city. Presently its 
members began to be invited to hold meetings in 
suburban villages and neighbouring towns; then, by 
means of the Sunday School Conventions, which were 
awakened into new spiritual life by Moody and his 
brethren, every county in the State was visited by 
organized bands of Christian workers, whose labours, 
as we shall see hereafter, were wonderfully blessed of 
God. Next came the State Young Men's Christian 
Conventions, in which the influence of the Chicago 
brethren came to be felt through almost every State 
of the Union. And now, fulfilling the prophecy of 
that impressive hour, the work and power of which 
he spoke have, in his own person, crossed the waters, 
and are sweeping grandly onward to bring the whole 
world to Christ. From Christians of all creeds in all 
parts of Great Britain, from France, and even from 
Australia, come pressing invitations to this servant of 
God to bring the Gospel and come to them. Surely 
the spirit of prophecy was in these hopeful words ! 

The next speaker was Mr. Farwell, treasurer of 



MR. FAR WELL'S SPEECH. 129 

the Board of Trustees, and chairman of the Building 
Committee. 

" Twenty-five years ago," said he, "there might have 
been seen, wending their way through the dirty streets 
of Chicago, a number of casks on wheels, distributing 
the waters of the lake at the houses of the people. 
A little later a few favoured ones were supplied with 
water, by means of wooden pipes, from a small tank, 
which was filled from the lake by the surplus power 
of the engine in the only flour-mill at that time in the 
place, 

" Then some enterprising capitalists conceived the 
idea of a mammoth reservoir, large enough to supply 
the whole city, and the lot on which this building 
stands was bought by the * Chicago Hydraulic Com- 
pany ' as a location for it. But the rapid growth of the 
city rendered this plan inadequate, and the municipal 
government, taking the matter into their own hands, 
built huge reservoirs in each division, still taking the 
water from near the shore, where it was always more 
or less impure. 

" This system, in its turn, has been supplanted by 
the tunnel, through which pure water from the depths 
of the lake — an inexhaustible supply — is brought to 
the homes of our people. 

" I have thought, since these walls were commenced 
on the very spot once selected for our central reser- 
voir, and now to be dedicated as a spiritual centre, 
whence we trust the pure Water of Life shall flow in 
every direction, of which if a man drink he shall never 
thirst again — I have thought that God's hand was in 
all this, and that, while we bless Him for the pure 



130 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

water from the depths of the lake, we should also 
magnify His goodness, which has taught us how to 
pass beyond the shores of shallow and turbid sectari- 
anism, and draw our spiritual life from the pure 
depths of the heart of Christ, and, by means of a 
Christian union which knows no differences of church 
or creed, to send out that tide of blessing all over this 
great city. 

" This building is a practical demonstration of the 
unity of Christ's Church. Here we are not Baptists, 
nor Methodists, nor Presbyterians ; we are simply 
Christians ; and as soon as the Lord wills it, nothing 
will delight me more than to see, as the result of such 
enterprises as this, a complete and hearty union of all 
who love our Lord Jesus Christ, — such a union as will 
sweep away sectarian distinctions, and make His 
Church a unity in diversity, with one pasture, one 
flock, and one Shepherd. 

" This enterprise, whose successful issue we celebrate 
to-night, has long been in contemplation. But only 
of late has any one had faith enough to conceive of 
its present proportions. It is well this project was 
delayed, or it might have been only a water-cart, 
instead of a great central reservoir." 

Mr. Farwell then read his treasurer's report, in 
which it appeared that the cost of the land, building, 
and appurtenances was ,$199,000. Stock to the 
amount of $135,000 had been subscribed; $50,000 
had been loaned on mortgages, leaving a floating 
debt of $14,000, which he proposed to meet by a 
subscription, then and there. The annual rentals were 
estimated at $32,000 ; the expenses and interest at 



MR. STUARTS REMARKS. 131 

m .. . _ - 

$17,000, leaving an annual net surplus of $15,000, 
with which the Association would be able to buy in 
the stock, pay off the mortgages, and ultimately come 
into full possession of the building and its handsome 
income, with which to continue and extend its work. 

Among the other speakers was Mr. George H. 
Stuart, president of the United States Christian 
Commission, than whom no man living could have 
been more welcome. He was rapturously received 
by the vast audience, by whom he was loved and 
honoured for his admirable management and brilliant 
leadership in the Commission during the war. 

He commenced his speech by saying, — 

" I have travelled eight hundred miles expressly to 
be present at the dedication of the first hall ever 
erected for Christian young men. * * * * 

" Let me take you, in thought, to a store in St. 
Paul's Churchyard, London, and introduce you to a 
modest business man, Mr. George Williams, who, in 
1844, was a clerk in that house. In those days he 
used to invite his fellow-clerks to his own little room 
for prayer, — I too have prayed in that room, — and the 
result of those meetings, on the 6th of June, 1844, took 
the form and name of the " London Young Men's 
Christian Association." From thence the organization 
has spr-ad through Europe and America ; and its 
work, by all kinds of good men on behalf of all kinds 
of unfortunate and bad men, has demonstrated its 
usefulness and power. 

"The Chicago Young Men's Christian Association 
was revival-born. Springing into life after the 
great awakening of 1857-8, it was among the first in 



132 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

existence. It was also among the earliest and most 
successful missionary organizations brought into use 
in connection with the war. God has been with you. 
You have had the ' God bless you ! ' of thousands of 
soldiers ; and, now that the war is over, untold thou- 
sands of sinners out of Christ wait for your peaceful 
ministry in His name. 

"In the year 1865 your Association attained its 
majority ; and now, with the hope of youth, and the 
vigour of manhood, it commences a new and splendid 
career, blessed with the confidence and supported by 
the beneficence of all branches of the Christian Church. 
Therefore, inscribe upon your banners the words of 
the heroic missionary Carey : 

" ' Attempt great things for God, and expect great 
things from God.' " 

The following statistics of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, which Mr. Stuart read on that occasion, 
are not without interest now : In England there were 
sixty-five organizations, in Scotland twenty-three, in 
Ireland six, in the Channel Islands two, in France 
fifty-four, in Germany two hundred and fifty-five, in 
Holland seventy-one, in Belgium ten, in Switzerland 
ninety-seven, in Italy five, in Asia five, in Oceanica 
six, and in America two hundred and forty-two. 

The enthusiasm of that occasion it is impossible 
to describe. There were shouts of ecstasy, and tears 
°f j°y 5 generous sentiments, and liberal gifts ; loving 
congratulations, and renewing of vows to Christ ; the 
mighty voice of singing, and the solemn words of 
prayer ; and, above all, and better than all, was the 
manifest presence of the Spirit of the Lord, cheering 



THE HALL NAMED. 133 

the hearts and strengthening the faith of those whose 
toil and offerings had achieved such grand success. 

But, as yet, this splendid auditorium was without a 
name. Mr. Moody, near the close of the service, rose 
and said :— 

It was the generous subscription of thirty thou- 
sand dollars, by the chairman of our Building Com- 
mittee, which purchased this land, and gave us at 
the outset a good hope of all we see to night. Now, 
by way of giving honour to whom honour is due, I 
propose that we name this building FARWELL HALL. 
All in favour say ' Aye ! ' " 

The shout which greeted this proposal must have 
reminded Mr. Farwell of that other rousing "aye" 
by which he was once elected superintendent of the 
North Market School. And now once more was he 
honoured, in a way which any man might covet. 

Acting on his own advice, President Moody then 
called for " more money." 

A handsome subscription was raised on the spot, 
sufficient to relieve the Association from all present 
embarrassment ; and thus, in evident favour both with 
God and man, it started on its new career. 



134 



CHAPTER X. 

MR. MOODY BECOMES THE APOSTLE OF THE YOUNG 
MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 

THE Association being now established in the 
finest Christian workshop in the world, the 
question arose how best to use it, and by whom its 
uses should be directed. 

In order to insure the co-operation of all the city- 
churches, and prevent the appearance of any conflict 
with their services, a meeting of all the evangelical 
pastors was called — where, after full and free discus- 
sion, it was voted to give over the entire direction of 
the meetings in Farwell Hall to Mr. Moody, the 
president of the Association. Thus, the humble clerk 
who, twelve years before, had started his little mission 
in an abandoned saloon, with a score of ragged and 
dirty street Arabs for his scholars, had at his com- 
mand one of the finest halls in America, and the most 
complete appointment and outfit for city missionary 
work which could be found in all the world. 

A small man, or a vain man, lifted to such a pin- 
nacle of prosperity, would have been almost certain to 
lose his head. But to Mr. Moody there was in all 
this no temptation to pride. It was, indeed, a splendid 



THE MEETINGS AT THE HALL. 135 

opportunity, and to make the most of it for the salva- 
tion of men was his ceaseless ambition and his tireless 
toil. Under his management Farwell Hall became a 
people's institution. Its meetings were attended by 
large numbers of strangers from all parts of the 
country ; and Moody himself became the recognised 
leader in this particular line of work — his zeal being 
honoured and his methods copied throughout the 
Northern States, and in Canada as well. 

The noon prayer-meeting frequently filled the thou- 
sand seats in the prayer-room, and on special occasions 
was held in the great hall. It was still attended by 
proofs of the Divine favour ; and requests for prayers, 
though fewer in number, still continued to come from 
abroad. A strangers' meeting was held on Monday 
evenings, at which Mr. Moody usually presided, where 
he talked and prayed with such point and freedom 
as few other men would have ventured to use. His 
first effort was to make strangers feel perfectly at 
home — in which he succeeded to a wonderful degree. 
He greeted them with the heartiness of an old friend. 
He would ask their names, where they came from, 
where they lived, what business they were doing, what 
churches they had attended ; giving them such infor- 
mation and counsel as he thought would be of prac- 
tical service. He would single out the new-comers, 
and call on them to speak. Thus : — 

" You brother, over there by the first window, don't 
you love the Lord ? " 

"That red-haired man on the back seat, are you a 
Christian ? " 

And the timid brother thus addressed would rise 



136 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

tremblingly to his feet, and give a reason of the hope 
which was in him, if he had one, whereupon Mr. Moody 
would immediately ask his name and residence, note 
it down in his book, and tell the new man that he 
was now to count himself one of the old members, 
and to begin to help in looking up and entertaining 
the strangers. 

Sometimes he would walk up and down the aisles, 
looking into the faces of the congregation for signs 
of the work of the Holy Spirit on their hearts ; and 
when he noticed a person who seemed to be thought- 
ful, or penitent, he would go straight to his side and 
say, " Are you a Christian ? " If the answer was at 
all doubtful, he would instantly follow with, " Do you 
want to be saved ? Do you want to be saved now ? " 
And, before the half-penitent sinner had time to make 
objections, he would have him on his knees in prayer, 
kneeling himself beside him, while the whole con- 
gregation were kneeling around him. The man thus 
publicly brought out as a seeker of religion would 
generally give himself up to the Lord, — being, as 
it were, pushed headforemost into the kingdom of 
heaven ; though under a less impetuous leader he 
might, for years, have dragged himself along at a 
snail's pace towards the entrance of the church. 

It was his habit to spend the first three quarters 
of the hour from eleven to twelve in the little prayer- 
closet already mentioned, where he laid his personal 
wants before the Lord with the utmost plainness and 
confidence, asking, with equal faith, for blessings tem- 
poral and spiritual, and looking for immediate answers 
in both directions. From these communings with 



COMPELLING THEM TO COME IN. 137 

God he would come down on the side walk in front 
of the entrance to the hall, his face fairly shining with 
the love and zeal of his soul, and, for a few minutes 
before the hour of meeting, would try to turn into it 
as many people as possible from the crowd which at 
that hour was always passing by. 

One day he laid his hand on the arm of a powerful 
man who was hurrying along, and brought him up 
with the question — 

" Are you for Jesus ? " 

" I am," was the reply. 

" Then go right up to the noon prayer-meeting." 

This was rather more than the stranger had looked 
for ; besides, he had fallen out of the habit of going 
to prayer-meetings. To quote his own expression^ 
he " used to be a Baptist, but had not worked at it 
any for a good while." He therefore tried to excuse 
himself, saying, — 

" I cannot go up to-day." 

"You can," said Mr. Moody, reading his man in 
an instant ; and it was only by a pretence of anger, 
and a display of actual force, that the backslidden 
Baptist was able to shake off the grip of his captor, 
and get out of the way. 

In ten or fifteen minutes of this vigorous kind of 
work he would send up a large number of people for 
prayers, who would not otherwise have attended. At 
the stroke of twelve he would leap up the stairway, 
three or four steps at a time, and rush to his place 
near the platform, to watch and help on the progress 
of the meeting. 

The leadership of the noon prayer-meetings he 
7 



138 D. Z. MOODY AND HIS WORK, 

uniformly gave into other hands, securing the services 
of clergymen and prominent laymen in that capacity. 
But whoever occupied the platform, and read the 
Scriptures, and gave out the hymns, Mr. Moody was 
almost certain to take the meeting in hand before 
it was ended, especially if the prayers were dull and 
long, or there appeared any signs of prosy debate. 
Many a slow-moving service did he rouse into 
vigour by some sharp admonition : many a discourse- 
ful brother did he suddenly shut up by calling for a 
verse of a hymn, or quoting a text of Scripture. 

So inexorable was his demand for point and brevity 
that, in these respects, the noon prayer-meeting be- 
came a model and a marvel. He, more than any 
other man, taught the Christian people of Chicago 
the art of speaking and praying in meetings ; and, 
under his training, it was curious to see with what 
anxiety the speakers would plunge at once into the 
midst of what they had to say. His influence in this 
respect is not likely to be lost, at least by the present 
generation. It is said by those who are curious in 
these matters that you may detect a Farwell Hall 
man in a meeting in any part of the country, by the 
amount of speaking and praying which he can cram 
into three minutes— that being the time to which each 
of its exercises was limited. 

Sometimes a&low-going brother from the country — 
a reverend brother, perhaps— would fail to notice the 
tinkling of the bell when he had just commenced his 
remarks ; and if the one in charge of the meeting 
hesitated in his duty, Mr. Moody would jump to 
his feet and perhaps ask the stranger a question. 



REACHING THE OUTSIDERS. 139 

Catching the first word or two of his answer, he would 
use it as a rudder with which to bring the meeting up 
before the wind and send it off on its proper course 
again, leaving the bewildered brother out of sight 
behind. 

The Farwell Hall services, under his administration, 
w.ere always managed with a view to supplement, but 
never to supplant, the regular work of the churches. 
The noon meeting was a union service, at which most 
of them were represented; but the other appointments 
were made to meet the wants of such persons as would 
not have entered an ordinary place of worship. Most 
of the inquirers who came to ask advice of Mr. Moody 
would never have ventured into a pastor's study. His 
unpolished speech and manners were strong attractions 
for certain classes of people, who were glad enough 
of a chance to throw themselves into his sturdy arms, 
but would have been repelled by courtly manners and 
dignified address. He was a man of the people, and 
they opened their hearts to him accordingly. 

He was conscious of his power over those who 
were out of the reach of other men ; but he never used 
blunt words and phrases merely for sensational effect. 
A man more perfectly natural it would be a difficult 
matter to find. 

Perhaps it was this which carried him triumphantly 
over his own mistakes, and prevented his being 
unduly mortified or cast down by reason of his many 
trifling blunders. In the saving power of rhetoric and 
grammar he had no faith at all; and the possession of 
these gifts by others never made him afraid of them, 
or hindered him from speaking his mind to them in 



14© D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 



his own plain and honest way. Rich men had given 
him money by thousands ; wise men had asked him 
to show them how to save sinners ; reverend men had 
begged him to come and help them in revivals. It was 
with good reason, therefore, that there was absolutely 
no fear of man before his eyes. He would familiarly 
inquire of a dignified Doctor of Divinity, " How does 
your soul prosper to-day, brother ? " or thrust a stran- 
ger through, whom he had never seen before, with 
the sharp-pointed question, " Do you love the Lord?" 

Many were troubled by this, at first; but his earnest 
manner came at length to be so well understood, that 
people ceased to be offended or even surprised by it. 
It came of love and not of pride. 

A merchant from a distant city was one day pass- 
ing along a street in Chicago, when he was suddenly 
stopped by a person whom he had never seen before, — 
who, placing his hand upon his arm and looking him 
full in the face, startled him by the question — 

" Do you belong to Christ ? " 

For a moment he was too much astonished to 
reply ; but at length, remembering that he was in the 
neighbourhood of Farwell Hall, a broad smile broke 
over his countenance, and, looking kindly upon his 
questioner, he replied, "You must be Mr. Moody." 

And so indeed it was. 

" You must stop your impertinence," said one of his 
friends to him, one day : " you narrowly escaped a 
beating from a man whom you asked in the street 
whether he were a Christian or no. He said he would 
have slapped you in the face if he had not remembered 
you were a non-combatant." 



MOODY'S IMPERTINENCE. 141 



" Do you remember his name ? " inquired Mr. 
Moody. 

It was given him. 

" Have you seen him within a few days ? " 

"No." 

"Well," said Mr. Moody, triumphantly, "that man 
has come to be one of my very best friends. He 
was baptized, and joined the church last Sunday ; 
and he dates his first serious feelings from that im- 
pertinent question of mine." 

In these direct appeals to strangers he was accus- 
tomed to act from impulse, which he believed was 
given him by the Spirit of the Lord. He held him- 
self ready to obey, on the instant, any instructions 
which he might thus receive ; and on such authority 
he would sometimes go directly contrary to the advice 
of his most judicious friends. But the event usually 
proved that he was right and they were wrong. 

In the language of one who for many years has been 
in intimate relations with him, — 

"He seems always to be carried along on a sea 
of inspiration. He passes his life tossing on its 
waves, where he is as perfectly at home as the stormy 
petrel on the ocean." 

But in this he did not set himself up as a rule for 
others to follow. " To every man his work," was a 
favourite saying with him ; and the fact that he was 
out of fashion in his way of serving the Lord seems 
seldom to have entered his mind. 

Mr. Reynolds, one of his particular friends, men- 
tions the following incident, related to him by a 
Christian brother from his own experience :. — 



142 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

" I shall always remember Mr. Moody," said he ; 
"for he was the means of leading me to Christ. I 
was in a railway train one day, when a stout, cheery- 
looking stranger came in, and sat down in the seat 
beside me. We were passing through a beautiful 
country, to which he called my attention, saying, — 

" * Did you ever think what a good Heavenly Father 
we have, to give us such a pleasant world to live in ? ' 

" I made some indifferent answer ; upon which he 
earnestly inquired, — 

"'Are you a Christian?" 

" I answered, ' No.' 

': ' Then,' said he, ' you ought to be one at once. I 
am to get off at the next station, but if you will kneel 
down, right here, I will pray to the Lord to make you 
a Christian.' 

" Scarcely knowing what I did, I knelt down beside 
him there, in the car filled with passengers, and he 
prayed for me with all his heart. Just then the train 
drew up at the station, and he had only time to get 
off before it started again. 

" Suddenly coming to myself out of what seemed 
more like a dream than a reality, I rushed out on the 
car platform, and shouted after him, 'Tell me who 
you are ! ' 

" He replied, 'My name is Moody/ 

" I never could shake off the conviction which then 
took hold upon me, until the prayer of that strange 
man was answered, and I had become a Christian 
man." 

A nature so intense and active could not fail to pro- 
voke hostility ; but the enmity excited by his mannes 



SAVED FROM A LIFE OF SHAME. 143 

often gave place to admiration on becoming better 
acquainted with him and catching a glimpse of his 
real life and love. 

A certain Chicago physician once said to Mr. 
Jacobs, — 

" I have no faith in your Mr. Moody ; I think him 
an impostor." 

Some time afterwards he called at Mr. Jacobs' office, 
and said, — 

" I once told you I did not believe in Mr. Moody. 
I have now come to say to you that I have greatly 
changed my mind." 

Being asked to give the reason, he said, — 

" I was called, the other day, to see a dying woman, 
who had led a life of shame. She gave me her watch 
and jewels, and asked me to send them to her only 
daughter, whom she had not seen for many years, 
and whose place of residence no one could give me 
but Mr. Moody. 

" I obtained the address, and wrote to the daughter, 
— who came to Chicago, proved her identity, and 
received the articles her mother had left her. " Her 
respectable and lady-like appearance awakened 
my interest, and I ventured to inquire how she 
had managed to escape the life and fate of her 
mother. 

" She answered, ' When I was a little girl, and we 
lived on the North Side, I used to go to Mr. Moody's 
Sunday-school. It was he who begged my poor 
mother to send me away where I might be safe ; 
and, by her consent, he took me to some friends of his 
ill another State, who adopted me as their child. I 



144 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK, 

grew up in a Christian home ; and now I am blessed 
with a happy home of my own. All this good fortune 
I owe to the Lord, and Mr. Moody.' 

" This man," said the doctor, " must be a Christian." 

It may be proper to add that he was raised still 
higher in the doctor's estimation by another fact 
which afterwards came to his knowledge. 

A year or two after the child had been given away, 
the wretched mother insisted on having her back 
again ; and on Mr. Moody's refusal to return the 
child, or even to tell where she was, the woman 
threatened to destroy his good name by denouncing 
him, falsely, as guilty of gross crimes. But the man 
who could not be moved from his duty by poverty 
was also impervious to fear of black-mail. Remem- 
bering the words of Christ, " Blessed are ye when 
they shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all 
manner of evil against you, falsely, for my sake," he 
remained faithful to his precious trust, even though 
it should cost him the loss of what was dearer than 
his life ; reaching the climax of Christian courage, 
and proving himself immovable as the everlasting 
hills. Finding her threats were of no avail, the 
woman resigned her child to a life of virtue ; and, on 
her death-bed, rejoiced at the course of the faithful 
missionary of the North Market School, to whose 
fidelity and godly life she bore her dying testimony. 

After the building of Farwell Hall, Mr. Moody 
became the chief apostle of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association ; and his services were in great 
request throughout the United States and Canada, 
where similar societies were to be organized, or 



THE APOSTLE OF THE Y. M. C. A. 145 

special revival services were to be held under their 
direction. 

Wherever he found these organizations too much 
given over to Constitution and By-laws, and a system 
of ceremonies, with respectable official forms and 
dignities, it was his delight to wake them up and 
bring them into active duty, in leading souls to 
Christ. 

He would call the leading brethren together, and in- 
quire what efforts they were making to save men from 
theirsins. If he found them doing, in a slightly different 
fashion, the ordinary work of the churches, among the 
respectable classes of society, he would insist that 
they should at once become missionaries for Christ — 
going out into the wretched streets of the cities, to 
bring in the halt, the lame, and the blind, and down 
into saloons and gambling-houses, to invite their 
inmates to turn from their evil ways and be saved. 
In a word, he taught them to lay aside their fine 
notions of artistic religion, and plunge into the rapids 
which are sweeping souls to destruction, to pull them 
out and land them safely on the shores of Christ's 
kingdom. 

More than any other man in America, God made 
use of Mr. Moody to save this new Christian organi- 
zation from degenerating into mere social fraternities, 
or becoming merely another sect, still further to divide 
the Christian world. 

It would have been easy for him to secure a very 
large following, and, after the manner of certain small 
reformers, to set up some kind of religious organiza- 
tion for the sake of being the head of it. But his 

7* 



146 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

humility was equal to his zeal — a combination seldom 
found — and on this account his leadership was safe, 
though often impetuous : he would sometimes rush 
along with apparently dangerous speed, but his direc- 
tion was sure to be towards Christ. 



CHAPTER XL 

THE SECOND FARWELL HALL. 

THE new hall, which had given the Association 
such promise of future usefulness, was of very 
short duration. 

Hardly were the various departments settled in 
their new offices, before the beautiful structure was 
laid in ashes. It was dedicated in September, 1867, 
and burned in January, 1868. The loss was a heavy 
one, for the building was only partially insured. 

While yet the ruins were smoking, a new sub- 
scription was Opened ; and before the fire was fairly 
out the designs for the new hall were under way. It 
was to be built upon the old foundations ; but in 
every other respect it was to be very much improved. 

Of the first hall Mr. Farwell says, — 

" It should have been named for Mr. Moody ; for 
without his faith and devotion it never would have 
been built." Again Mr. Moody's talent in rais- 
ing money for the Lord's work was called into 
exercise. To what extent the second Farwell Hall 
owed its existence to the unquenchable zeal and 
courage of the president of the Young Men's Chris- 



148 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

tian Association, is not easy to determine. Both he 
and Mr. Farwell were pledged before God and man 
to this great enterprise ; and most of the original 
stockholders being of the same mind, rallied nobly 
to its rescue. New stock was subscribed, new dona- 
tions made, and the following year the second Farwell 
Hall, in all respects superior to the first, was finished 
and dedicated, with another shout of joy and another 
song of praise. 

Mr. Moody's acquaintance with all sorts and con- 
ditions of men, and now more especially with rich 
men, was of great service to him in raising this second 
subscription. Considerable sums of money were given 
him for this purpose by persons who cared little or 
nothing for religion, but who liked his youthful hearti- 
ness and admired his boundless faith. 

Many incidents are related of his aptness at taking 
advantage of circumstances and turning them to ac- 
count. The following is one of the most pleasing: 

Among the old, substantial citizens of Chicago, were 
two wealthy men with whom he was on the best of 
terms. Neither of them were religious men, — quite the 
reverse,indeed ; but, for some reason or other, Mr. Moody 
had come to be particularly interested in their salva- 
tion. One of them had the misfortune to be thrown 
from his carriage, striking a curb-stone and receiving 
severe injuries. He was carried into an hotel near at 
hand, where Mr. Moody, on hearing of the accident, 
made haste to call upon him. 

The wounded man was glad to see him ; and Moody, 
taking a seat by his bed, opened upon him as follows: — 

" I heard the other day that your old friend J 



STRANGE ANSWER TO PRAYER. 149 

was converted to God, and I said to myself, 'Now there 

is some hope of .' So I went right down to the 

noon-meeting, and had them pray for you. And now, 
don't you see, the Lord has answered our prayers by 
tipping over your buggy, and breaking your bones and 
laying you up here for awhile, in order to get you 
away from business and give you time to take care of 
your soul." 

" That may be so/' replied the wounded man, 
thoughtfully and kindly. 

The doctor coming in just then, Mr. Moody took 
his leave. 

Not long after, he called a second time, and offered 
to pray with his friend. The offer being accepted, he 
kneeled down at his bedside and opened his heart to 
the Lord, telling Him all about his afflicted friend, 
what a sinner he had been, and saying how much he 
wanted to have him saved. On rising from his knees, 
the wounded man, with tears trickling through his 
fingers, with which he had covered his face, said to 
him, as soon as he could command his voice, "Mr. 
Moody, I thank you. I have been prayed for, and 
prayed at, a great many times ; but no one ever 
prayed with me until now." 

A few days afterwards, the hall having been burnt 
in the meantime, Mr. Moody called again, and pro- 
posed that the patient should subscribe to the stock 
of the new hall. 

" That's a matter of business," said Mr. . " If 

my manager says it's all right, I will take some of the 
stock. But you must take this for yourself," and he 
drew out a cheque for a considerable amount. Mr. 



150 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

Moody refused the money, saying he was in need of 
nothing ; but his friend forced it upon him. " While 
I have been here in bed," said he, " a great many 
charity agents have taken advantage of me to come 
and beg for money. You have come, once and 
again, asking for nothing, but trying to save my 
soul. And now I am doing for you what I would 
not do for them. Take the money, and use it for 
yourself and family." 

At the date of this writing no further answers to 
prayer on this man's behalf have come to light. He 
is still a fast friend of Mr. Moody, who, when he 
comes back from across the sea, may yet realize his 
joyful prophecy, which seemed so improbable when 

he made it, — " We shall some time see 

leading the noon prayer-meeting in the new Farwell 
Hall." 

The intense orthodoxy of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, under Mr. Moody's administration, 
gave no little offence to certain Unitarian brethren, who 
had joined it by reason of their interest in its lectures, 
its proposed free library and reading-room, and its 
work of relieving the poor. But for the prayer-meet- 
ings and other religious services they had a strong 
dislike ; and the Puritanical strictness with which all 
the affairs of the Association were managed roused 
their determined opposition. On one occasion some 
of them had hired the great hall for a fair ; and, at a 
late hour of the evening, the tables were cleared away 
for a dance. This use of a place dedicated to the 
work and worship of the Lord roused Mr. Moody's 
conscience. He expostulated, but without producing 



TURNING OFF THE GAS. 151 

any impression ; and, finding them determined on 
this desecration of the hall, he turned off the gas, 
leaving them in darkness to find their way out into 
the street as best they might, and, as may be sup- 
posed, in no very amiable frame of mind. 

No wonder that a policy so fearless and uncom- 
promising should have roused the opposition of these 
easy-going religionists ! 

The pastor of one of the few Unitarian societies of 
Chicago was a recent pervert from orthodoxy, having 
backslidden from a leading evangelical pulpit to the 
platform of the liberal church, over the way. Desiring, 
no doubt, to signalize his new departure, he devised 
a rival society to the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion, based on the principles of a softer theology, and 
privileged with the indulgence of easier habits and a 
wider range of amusements. 

One great objection against Mr. Moody's admini- 
stration had been his use of the relief department 
as a missionary institution. It was alleged by the 
opposition, and confessed by Mr. Moody, that he 
never gave away a pair of trousers, or a load of wood, 
or a pound of tea, without an accompanying exhor- 
tation or prayer; and on all possible occasions the 
recipients were urged to give their hearts to Christ, 
devote themselves to a life of piety, and attend the 
prayer-meetings in Farwell Hall. 

Many a family, deserted and poor, were by this 
means restored to society, and to the enjoyment of 
the means of grace : but it was noticeable that only 
the congregations at Farwell Hall, or at some ortho- 
dox church, were enlarged by the operation of this 



152 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

system ; which was, no doubt, an added reason for the 
zeal of Mr. Colier in his efforts to establish his rival 
" Christian Union." 

The burning of the first Farwell Hall was the 
signal for the commencement of their enterprise. A 
great meeting at the Opera House, with all the clerical, 
financial, and social glory which this heterodox com- 
munity could bring together, resulted in raising a 
subscription of several thousand dollars. With this 
they established the new organization. It was their 
intention to save young people from saloons and 
gambling-houses by means of innocent recreation, 
mingled with occasional instruction in literature and 
art ; but by no means annoying them with psalm- 
singing, or disturbing them with prayers. 

During the brief period in which the second Farwell 
Hall was rising from the ruins, of the first, the "liberal" 
association carried on a moderately thriving business. 
But presently, from some reason or other, it began 
to lose ground. Worldly amusements, with a mild 
flavour of religion, at the rooms of the Christian 
Union, were evidently less attractive to worldly peo- 
ple than those offered elsewhere, taken in the natural 
way. The attendance on its debates, amateur thea- 
tricals, gymnastics, games of dominoes, checkers, and 
chess, dwindled by slow degrees, until the whole scheme 
reached the point of absolute collapse ; and about the 
time that the new Farwell Hall was ready for use, its 
treasury was empty, its rooms abandoned, and the 
last checker-board and box of dominoes, with all the 
other furniture, was sold by auction, to help to pay 
its outstanding debts. Afterwards the " Union " took 



A "LIBERAL" RIVAL. 153 

the form of a school, with classes and lectures, day 
and evening, at a moderate cost. In this way it 
has made itself useful ; but as an " opposition " to the 
Young Men's Christian Association in methods of 
religious culture, it has been a conspicuous failure. 

Through the relief work of the Association, the 
poor in all parts of the city came to know Mr. 
Moody. They would run after him, and stop him in 
the street, sometimes to ask assistance and sometimes 
to overwhelm him with thanks and blessings. If any 
one praised his charity, he would reply, ? Don't praise 
me, — bruise me rather; but if you love me, love Christ 
for my sake." He was tender-hearted, and full of 
sympathy with those in distress; but he managed 
the relief of the poor not so much for the sake of 
comforting their bodies as with the hope of saving 
their souls. Everything was made to contribute to 
the work of bringing sinners to Christ. 

For four years Mr. Moody held the office of presi- 
dent of the Young Men's Christian Association. He 
then declined re-election, but consented to act as 
vice-president, with his old friend J. V. Farwell in 
the chair. 

The improvements in the second hall, the loss from 
inadequate insurance, and the interest upon borrowed 
money, left the Association in considerable financial 
embarrassment. Mr. Moody raised about $20,000, in 
donations and stock, while the hall was building. But, 
the treasury running low, he resorted to an ingenious 
expedient for replenishing it. 

A sumptuous banquet was given at the Tremont 
House, to which the ministers of the city, the leading 



154 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

business men of their churches, and the stockholders 
of Farwell Hall, were invited. After supper the report 
of the financial condition of the Association was 
rendered, and an appeal made, first to the stock- 
holders, to donate their stock to the Association, or 
to donate the interest due on it; and then to the 
other members of the company, to subscribe money 
for the current expenses of the year. The enthusiasm 
was great. Large amounts of stock were turned over, 
a considerable portion of the accrued interest sub- 
scribed, and the treasury largely replenished for the 
work of the coming year. The supper, which was 
free to the guests, was itself a donation secured by 
Mr. Moody's appeal. It may be said, therefore, 
that, under his generalship, the Association ate its way 
out of its difficulties. 

The Sunday evening meetings in the new hall 
came to be a power and a blessing. It was Mr. 
Moody's custom to preach the same discourse in the 
evening which he had given to his Illinois Street 
congregation in the morning. This was always un- 
derstood by his people ; but they followed him in 
crowds to hear the sermon a second time, as well as 
to assist in the social meetings which followed it. 
With a single exception, it was the largest Protestant 
congregation in Chicago. At the close of the preach- 
ing-service, descending from the platform, he would 
stand at the door, greeting his friends, and watching for 
an opportunity to make acquaintance with strangers ; 
after which he would lead the way to the prayer- 
room, on the floor below, where a meeting for in- 
quiry and conference was held, for the purpose of 



SUNDAY AT THE HALL. 155 

following up and securing the results of the public 
services above. 

Lewd fellows of the baser sort sometimes came into 
the meetings, and caused disturbances. On one occa- 
sion, there being no policeman at hand, the preacher 
was constrained to draw upon his own treasury of 
muscular force ; and, almost before he was aware of 
it, he had repeated upon the disturber of the meeting 
the treatment which once before resulted so favour- 
ably at the North Market Mission. But notwith- 
standing such trifles as these, all classes and conditions 
of men and women continued to receive invitations to 
his services. He was glad to take the risk of annoy- 
ance if the bad fellows would only come. 

It was no small attraction to those who were too 
poor to hire a seat in church, or even to clothe them- 
selves suitably to attend it, to know that one of the 
finest audience-rooms in the State was open, every 
Sunday night, for their especial benefit ; that a great 
organ and well-trained choir were in readiness to cheer 
their hearts with music ; and that the most forcible 
and fervent, if not the most eloquent preacher in the 
whole North-West, was on the platform, to give them 
a sermon which was all the better for having been 
preached before. 

The second Farwell Hall soon became a great 
religious centre. State and national assembles, anni- 
versaries, and conventions of various kinds, were held 
in it; ecclesiastical councils of various denomination* 
met there ; the great divines of England and Americ 1 
preached there; and the matchless temperance oratoi, 
Mr. Gough, would not speak anywhere else in the city. 



156 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

If a mass-meeting was to be held, or a benefit to 
some charity was projected, the managers felt assured 
of success if they could secure the use of Farwell Hall. 
There was an atmosphere of spiritual fervour about 
the place, which was as evident as the atmosphere of 
reverence in Westminster Abbey, or of antiquity and 
mystery about the Pyramids and the Sphinx. It 
seemed to have a soul in sympathy with every godly 
work. It was a church which had taken down its 
spire, widened its pulpit, substituted chairs for pews, 
left its sectarian traditions behind it, thrown its doors 
wide open day and night, week-days and Sundays ; 
and thus, with everything " cleared for action," as they 
say in the navy, had taken up a position in the midst 
of the world of business, as if to say, — Religion be- 
longs everywhere : Christ and His Church are here, 
close to the Chamber of Commerce, and on 'Change. 
Again and again Mr. Moody organized revival 
campaigns in it : calling to his aid the best clerical 
talent of the city, and bringing together crowds of 
the most prayerful members of all the evangelical 
churches. The watchword was, UNION : union with 
Christ first, and in Him, union with one another. 
No controversies were permitted. No doctrines were 
preached but such as were believed by all intelligent 
Christians ; and it was found by actual experiment 
that there was really no use for any other, so far as 
the work of saving sinners and edifying saints was 
concerned. The Gospel, pure and simple, was mighty 
to the pulling down of the strongholds of Satan ; espe- 
cially the one called sectarian exclusiveness. 

God honoured His Word greatly in those Union 



UNION SERVICES. 157 

revival services, one result of which was to bring- 
about more perfect harmony among the various 
denominations in Chicago than was ever seen in any 
large city before. 

Here may be found another section of the path 
along which the Holy Spirit was leading this man. 
He was learning the true idea of Christian unity ; 
and, out of the successes of those Union services, 
came the experience and skill which have made him 
the chief apostle, in our time, of co-operative work by 
all believers for bringing the world to Christ. 

A library and reading-room were among the appli- 
ances included in the original plan of Farwell Hall. 
These were opened in due time ; and so rapidly did 
this branch of the work increase, that in three years 
after the second hall was completed, the Chicago 
Young Men's Christian Association possessed a 
library equal in practical usefulness and value to 
almost any in the older cities of the Union. 

It was a Christian library. All unchristian works 
were excluded ; but it did not at all suffer thereby. 

In the administration of the library, and of all the 
other departments of the Association, Mr. Moody, 
though no longer president, was the leading spirit. 
He had come to be recognised as a man of the people ; 
his judgment was taken as a kind of thermometer of 
the judgment of the masses of ordinary Christians ; 
and the inspirations and leadings of the Holy Spirit 
which sometimes came to him were often acted upon 
by his brethren contrary to their own opinions. He 
was, as they thought, better acquainted with the Lord 
than they, and therefore more likely to know His 



158 D. Z. MOODY AND HIS WOB/& 

pleasure and will. " If any man lack wisdom," says 
the Scripture, " let him ask of God . . and it shall be 
given him." Mr. Moody, feeling his lack of the wis- 
dom of the schools, was all the while asking instruc- 
tions of God ; and his simple faith in this promise was 
so greatly honoured that, in spite of his headstrong 
and impetuous manner, and his contempt of fashions 
and forms, he was listened to with respect whenever 
he said, " I feel that God wants us to do this." 

He also had the grace to learn wisdom from his 
own mistakes. An accomplished Christian gentle- 
man, and one of his faithful helpers, says of him, 
" Moody is impetuous, and all the time committing 
blunders ; but he never makes the same mistake 
twice." 



m 



CHAPTER XII. 

MR. MOODY'S CONVENTION WORK. 

AS a platform speaker and a manager of crowds, 
this man, with none of the graces of oratory, 
but with a soul on fire with love and zeal, has come 
to be a master among men. 

Early in his missionary life he was called to speak 
in small Sunday-school conventions, chiefly on account 
of his experience in ways of reaching the masses of 
neglected children in great cities. He knew this thing 
better than any other man in the West ; and, in his 
blunt way, he could tell it, greatly to the instruction, 
and sometimes not a little to the amusement, of his 
audience. For several years he filled little niches in 
the programmes — willing to do anything, however 
small, to help on the cause of his Master. 

But on a certain occasion in the spring of 1861, he 
was thrust to the front by the providence of God ; and, 
in a sudden emergency, he learned more fully how to 
use the power which had so long been growing and 
slumbering in him. 

The Committee of the Sunday-School Convention 
for Bureau County, Illinois, had written to Chicago 



160 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK, 

for speakers, and it was arranged that several brethren 
should go down and help them. But when Mr. 
Moody reached the place, coming from some other 
appointment, he found that none of the " distinguished 
speakers from Chicago " were on hand, except his 
friend Mr. E. W. Hawley, the secretary of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, who, like himself, was 
reckoned one of the lesser lights in the Chicago 
constellation. Great things were expected from the 
Chicago men ; and the whole of the afternoon on the 
great day of the meeting had been set apart to hear 
them. " If ever two poor fellows were frightened," 
says Mr. Hawley, " it was Moody and V* 

It was about two o'clock on a cold March morn- 
ing when they reached the city of Princeton, where 
the Convention was held, — too early to sit up, and 
too late to go to bed. Shivering with cold, and 
trembling under the load of responsibility thus 
suddenly laid upon them, they took a room, not for 
sleep, but for prayer. During the rest of the night 
they sought unto God for power and guidance, and 
in the morning both of them felt the smile of Heaven 
warming and gladdening their souls. 

The morning session passed in humdrum style, with 
fussy debates on trifling questions ; all of which led Mr. 
Moody and Mr. Hawley to see the importance of a more 
spiritual turn being given to the work of the afternoon. 

In due time, happy in a sense of God's presence, they 
started for the large church where they were to fill the 
places of the "distinguished brethren from Chicago." 
Close to the church was a public schoolroom, which 
Mr. Moody engaged for the afternoon. 



A NEW POWER. 161 

" What do you want with that ? " asked his friend. 

" I want it for an inquiry meeting after we get 
through," was the reply. 

It was arranged that Mr. Hawley should speak 
first, while Mr. Moody prayed for him ; they were 
then to change places, and Moody was to speak, 
while Hawley prayed ; and so the meeting began. 
There was a great congregation, come to hear the 
" distinguished speakers " ; but the two young men 
trusted in God and went ahead. 

Mr. Hawley spoke for about twenty minutes with 
good effect; and then came Mr. Moody's turn. He 
seemed like one inspired. Before long he had the 
audience in tears. He pictured to them their need 
of Christ to help them as Sunday-school teachers; 
showed them the awful sin of doing their work in a 
careless or worldly manner ; and, after an address of 
an hour or more, which was like a wild mountain 
torrent, he called for those who wanted to find Christ 
now, to meet him at once in the schoolroom, next 
door. 

Great numbers of anxious inquirers accepted his 
invitation, about sixty of whom were blessed before 
leaving the place. 

This was the beginning of a wide-spread revival in 
Bureau County ; for the delegates carried the spirit 
of that wonderful meeting home with them, and gave 
their hearts and hands anew to their work. But 
it was also the beginning of a new life for Mr, 
Moody. He had taken hold of power; and from 
that day he went everywhere in the strength of God. 
With perfect abandon, he threw himself upon Christ 

8 



162 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

and into his subject ; and, carried on the tides of 
heavenly love and sympathy, he swept along to- 
wards the mercy-seat, taking multitudes of penitent 
sinners with him, and offering them in prayer to the 
Saviour as trophies of His grace. 

This way of acting and speaking by special inspira- 
tion led him to do strange things sometimes, though 
afterwards they were generally seen to be useful and 
right. 

On one of his rounds of meetings in the State of 
Indiana, he was riding in the waggon of a quiet Chris- 
tian brother, who was taking him to his next appoint- 
ment ; when they passed a little school-house which 
was closed for the day. Telling his friend to stop at 
the dwelling nearest to it, he stood up in the waggon 
and hailed the house. A woman came to the door, 
and Mr. Moody asked if there were any religious 
meetings held in that school-house. 

" No indeed," answered the woman ; " we haven't 
any meetings anywhere about here." 

"Well," said Moody, "tell all your neighbours 
there will be prayer-meetings in that school-house 
every night next week," 

At the next house they found the teacher of the 
school, to whom he gave the same announcement, and 
bade her send the notice by all her scholars. 

As they rode on, the brother who was conveying 
him seemed lost in amazement. He knew that this 
strange man had a long list of appointments in 
advance, and could not attend those meetings he was 
giving out. At length he said, — 

" You are telling these people there are to be prayer- 



A CHARACTERISTIC INCIDENT. 163 

meetings in that school-house every night next 
week. I should like to know who is going to conduct 
them ? " 

" You are," said Mr. Moody. 

" I ! " said the man in astonishment : " I never did 
such a thing in my life." 

" It's time you had, then," said Moody. " I have 
made the appointment, and you will have to keep it." 

Thrust out into the work in this strange manner, 
the good brother actually went and held the meetings^ 
which filled the little school-house to overflowing, and 
resulted in a great revival of religion throughout all 
that neglected region of country. 

An organization had existed for several years in the 
State of Illinois, a part of whose work it was to hold 
an annual State Sunday School Convention, to which 
every school was invited to send its superintendent and 
one delegate, for a four or five days' conference upon 
general Sunday-school interests. These conventions 
were somewhat cold and formal, devoting much time 
to parliamentary tactics, and discussions on the theory 
and art of teaching, to the neglect of spiritual ques- 
tions : such as — How to bring the children to a saving 
knowledge of Christ : How to save the parents through 
the children : How to call more labourers into Christ's 
whitening harvest : How, in prayer, to get firmest hold 
on God's promises : How to become sanctified through 
the Truth. 

From 1858 to 1865 the annual Conventions went 
on in this style. Mr. Moody, Mr. Jacobs, and Major 
Whittle — who, from being so much together in the 
work of the Lord, were called the " Chicago Trio"— 



164 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK, 

became deeply impressed with the need of more of 
the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. 

The meeting for 1865 being at hand, the Chicago 
brethren laid a plan for lifting it out of its old for- 
mality, and making it a truly spiritual and godly 
assembly. 

Four days previous to the time at which the meet- 
ing was to be held, in the city of Springfield, Mr. 
Moody, Mr. Jacobs, and one or two other brethren, 
started for the scene of action ; reaching the place at 
about four o'clock on Saturday morning. For an 
hour or two they walked the streets, talking of the 
ways and means by which the great Convention 
might, with God's blessing, be turned into a revival. 
After breakfast, Mr. Jacobs, feeling special liberty 
in that direction, sought out a Baptist church, 
climbed in at a window, followed by Moody and 
the rest ; went into the pulpit ; opened the Bible ; 
read a portion of Scripture, and commenced to 
hold a little prayer-meeting : when the pastor of 
the church, entering by the door, gave them hearty 
welcome to his church and city. 

The Chicago brethren told him they were the 
advance-guard of the Sunday School Convention, and 
had come to hold revival meetings as a prelude to 
its exercises. 

This church and other places of worship were 
gladly placed at their disposal. Meetings were held 
on the Sabbath, which attracted such multitudes that 
many were turned away for want of room. In the 
Presbyterian church, the meeting led by Messrs. 
Moody and Jacobs on Sunday afternoon resulted in 



A BAPTISM FROM ON HIGH. 165 

the awakening of seventy persons, who arose for 
prayer in all parts of the house ; of all classes of 
people, and all ages, from a child of six to a grey- 
haired infidel of seventy years. These revival meetings 
were continued through the session of the Conven- 
tion, resulting in about two hundred conversions — 
one of the converts being the aged infidel above 
mentioned. But the most remarkable fruit of this 
effort was its influence on the Convention itself. Its 
sessions were made glorious by the presence of the 
Holy Ghost. No more wordy discussions ; no strife 
for honours : but all hearts, thrilled by " power from 
on high," sought for a fresh baptism, and consecrated 
themselves anew to Christ and His work. The fire 
there kindled spread all over the State. The dele- 
gates, returning to their own homes and schools, 
stirred up their brethren to greater activity and devo- 
tion in the work of saving souls, with most encouraging 
results. 

The next annual meeting, held in the city of 
Decatur, was a ptrfect jubilee. A record was brought 
up of about ten thousand conversions, most of them 
traceable to the baptism of power on the Convention 
of the previous year. 

Encouraged by the blessing of the Lord, they 
determined on an effort for the complete and syste- 
matic canvass of the State, with a view to organize 
Sunday-schools in every neglected region. 

The sum of five thousand dollars, which was the 
estimated expense of the work, was raised in about 
thirty minutes. Well-known brethren, from each of 
the one hundred counties, were appointed as a com- 



166 D, L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

mittee of exploration, who were to call in such aid 
as they could at home, by which means it was ex- 
pected that every part of the State would be reached, 
and immense numbers of people brought under this 
simple means of grace. 

The Convention held the following year, in the 
city of Du Quoin, in the southern part of the State, 
sometimes called " Egypt," was a still greater marvel 
of success. 

Du Quoin was then a village of three thousand 
inhabitants ; and about an equal number of Sunday- 
school delegates poured in upon them. But every one 
brought a benediction with him ; the hearts of the 
people grew large with welcome, and the whole place, 
for those four days, was given over to rejoicing. The 
meetings were almost continuous, from early morn- 
ing until eleven o'clock at night. No church or hall 
being large enough to accommodate them, they were 
held in an immense barn, used for baling and storing 
hay, but at this time, by good fortune, empty. 

At the next annual Convention, held in Blooming- 
ton, the enthusiasm was unparalleled. Mr. Moody 
was elected president, and carried the great meeting 
along at the highest rate of speed. No long prayers 
or speeches were tolerated ; and the meeting rolled 
on in an ever-increasing tide of power ; reaching its 
climax in the moving address of its president on the 
memorable night of its closing. 

The success of the organization in the previous 
year led to a call for volunteers, to canvass the 
counties over again ; and in this manner every town 
in the State was brought into line, 



"THE CHICAGO RING. 19 167 

Mr. Moody, and Mr. Reynolds of Peoria, pledged 
themselves to hold County Conventions through all 
the southern portion of Illinois. 

These Conventions are remembered with great 
delight. The progress of these two brethren from 
one county to another was a sort of triumphal pro- 
cession ; large numbers of people accompanying them 
in waggons and on horseback ; the interest of the 
meetings increasing as they went along. When no 
hall of sufficient capacity could be obtained, the 
services were held in the open air. There were also 
camp-meetings, field-meetings, street preaching in 
the towns on their route, from the court-house steps, 
and other public places. In one county — that of 
Gallatin — the conversions at these meetings reached 
the number of six hundred. 

The State Convention of 1870 was held at Quincy, 
— where, it is estimated, five thousand Sunday-school 
delegates were present. The success of Messrs. 
Moody and Reynolds, and their co-labourers Messrs. 
Jacobs and Whittle, of Chicago, Tyng of Peoria, and 
Gillett of Jacksonville, had naturally made them 
prominent, and led to their being placed on the most 
important committees; and Professor Gillett, super- 
intendent of the State Asylum for the Deaf and 
Dumb, had been placed in the chair, in opposition to 
a local candidate. It appears that the gentleman in 
question, though an excellent man, was also a candi- 
date for some political office ; and it was thought, by 
his friends, that the position of President of the 
State Sunday School Convention would greatly help 
his chances of election. Such a use of such an office 



168 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

was determinedly opposed by the brethren above 
mentioned, with the result already indicated. 

Much ill-feeling was manifested by the friends of 
the losing candidate, as the Convention went on ; and 
when Mr. Moody took the stand to " open the question 
drawer," — that is, \o give off-hand answers to im- 
promptu questions on Sunday-school topics, (an exer- 
cise in which he particularly excelled,) the question 
was asked him whether " the ring " which controlled 
the State Sunday School Convention had any limit 
to its power. 

Such a question in such an assembly, already 
somewhat disturbed, threatened to produce an open 
rupture, break up the Convention, and do irreparable 
injury to the cause it represented. Mr. Moody saw 
the situation at a glance. He knew the determined 
and organized opposition to the strictly religious 
methods introduced and carried out by himself and 
his friends. A less ready and courageous man would 
have suffered the meeting to drift into confusion ; 
but, without the least apparent anxiety, he replied 
to this remarkable question by giving a full account 
of "the ring," and the blessing of God which, year 
after year, had attended their united labours all over 
the State. Having done this, he closed his remarks 
by tendering to the Convention the resignation of 
every office held by himself and the brethren at 
whom the question was aimed. 

The scene which followed is indescribable. Thou- 
sands of people were weeping. Brethren from every 
part of the State earnestly defended Mr. Moody and 
his friends. The opposition was hushed in silence, 



HOSTILITY DISARMED. 169 

and drowned in tears. A motion was made and 
carried by acclamation, refusing to accept the resigna- 
tion offered by Mr. Moody on behalf of himself and 
his friends. The facts connected with their work were 
their only and sufficient defence. 

When the motion had passed, Mr. Moody spoke a 
few words, full of tenderness and emotion, and then 
said, " Let us pray." 

In speaking of the scene which followed, Mr. Jacobs 
says, — 

41 Many people have told me they never heard 
anything like that prayer." The whole audience was 
melted ; sobs and cries drowned the leader's voice ; 
and when he rose from his knees, Philip Phillips, the 
u sweet singer " of the Methodist Israel, struck up one 
of his tender and loving hymns, which was like oil 
upon the troubled waters. 

At the close of the meeting, one of the friends of 
the gentleman in whose behalf the unhappy division 
had been made, spoke of his feelings thus : — 

" We were sufficiently punished when Mr. Moody 
told us what he had been trying to do for Christ, 
and then offered to give up all his honours ; but 
when he prayed for us, our punishment was greater 
than we could bear." 

The storm had passed. Love and harmony reigned 
once more. The Convention went forward to its 
close, with the old-time vigour and success ; and 
since that day no discord has marred its history. 

Other States also sought the services of the "Chicago 
ring," and attempted to copy their plans. 

The Young Men's Christian Association of Boston 

8* 



170 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

invited Mr. Moody to attend a great Sunday-school 
meeting at Tremont Temple, in that city, to explain 
the Illinois method, and to help them to put it in 
operation throughout the State of Massachusetts. He 
went, and made a characteristic speech, setting forth 
his plan minutely, and awakening in the audience a 
high degree of interest. The motion was then made 
to put this plan in operation, without delay. But 
some of the more cautious brethren were not pre- 
pared to enter on so great a work without a large 
amount of argument. They spoke, one after another, 
of the difficulties in the way. What could be done 
easily enough in the Western State of Illinois might 
not be possible, they thought, in the Eastern State of 
Massachusetts. This line of remark so cooled down 
the enthusiasm of the meeting, that at last they 
actually voted to postpone the whole subject for a 
year. 

Mr. Moody's genius in snatching victory from 
the jaws of defeat was notably manifest on this 
occasion. The Convention, having proved a complete 
failure, was about to adjourn, when he whispered 
to the chairman: "Call another meeting for this 
evening; tell the people I will speak." 

The presiding officer did as he was directed, and 
in the evening the hall was filled ; though the only 
attraction offered was another speech from the man 
whose views the Convention had set aside during 
the day. Cautiously and steadily Mr. Moody com- 
menced his work. He spoke of his own North Market 
Mission School ; gave them scenes and incidents, in 
which ragged and dirty children of the street had 



SNATCHING VICTORY FROM DEFEAT. 171 

become cultivated and honoured Christian ladies and 
gentlemen ; and, when he felt that his audience had 
become sufficiently impressible, he brought up again 
the discarded plan of the morning, for organizing the 
Sunday-school work of Massachusetts. Throwing all 
his power and energy into the subject, it soon became 
evident that he was carrying the audience with him ; 
and, at the supreme moment, he opened the question 
again as follows : — 

" Brethren and friends, I am not very much used to 
putting motions, and bringing them back again after 
they have been voted down ; but we must do some- 
thing to correct that wrong vote of this morning. 
Now everybody in the house who is not satisfied with 
that vote, and wants to go to work, at once, and 
organize this State after the Illinois pattern, let him 
stand on his feet, hold up his right hand, and say 
'Aye!'" 

As by a common impulse, the entire congregation 
rose to their feet, and answered "Aye," in a shout so 
hearty that before the close of the year its echoes 
were heard all over the old Bay State. 

When the State Christian Convention of Missouri 
was held in the city of St. Louis, not long after the 
close of the war, it was found impossible to agree 
upon a candidate for presiding officer. The city was 
divided between the friends of the Union and the 
friends of the late Confederacy ; and every prominent 
religious man in the State was known as a partisan 
on one side or the other. 

'Mr. Moody, who was present, was at length agreed 
upon by both sides as a suitable man to fill the chair ; 



172 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

for, though he was not a citizen of their State, and 
had been a staunch Union man through the war, 
yet there was so much Christianity in him as either 
to hide or glorify whatever opinions he might hold 
on any other subject. 

It will readily be believed that the duties of the 
chairman, under such circumstances, were difficult 
and trying in the extreme. But Mr. Moody made 
an admirable presiding officer. He seemed to hold 
the Union men by one hand and the ex-Confederates 
by the other, thus constituting himself a tie of Chris- 
tian brotherhood between them. When any confu- 
sion seemed likely to arise, he knew how, suddenly 
but gracefully, to bring the Convention around the 
dangerous point by the help of a prayer or a hymn ; 
sometimes changing the whole order of services, to 
avoid a dangerous debate. 

Thus, with a cool head, a warm heart, and a steady 
hand, all sanctified and empowered by Divine grace, 
he managed this dangerous combination of fire and 
gunpowder without an explosion : an achievement of 
which the speaker of the House of Representatives or 
Commons might be proud, and which would certainly 
be mentioned in their memoirs as a triumph of genius, 
good-nature, and parliamentary skill. 

From Maine to Texas, from Montreal to San 
Francisco, from St. Paul to New Orleans, Mr. Moody 
went, year after year, preaching and praying, rousing 
the Christian Associations into activity, labouring 
with the pastors of churches in revivals ; coming 
home, now and then, to give a few weeks' earnest 
labour to his own congregation, and finding a hatful 



TRAINED, IF NOT LEARNED. 173 

of calls awaiting him. He thus gained experience 
of inestimable value, and received a training, better 
than that of the schools, for the still greater work 
which the Lord had in store for him across the 
sea. 

During this time, as may be supposed, he had no 
leisure for books. One Book only had he time to 
study; but the Bible, as he learned to use it, answered 
every purpose. He is still unlearned, as that word 
is commonly understood ; but the knowledge and 
training which he has obtained in his seventeen years 
of labour as a missionary and evangelist, with a con- 
tinent for his college, and hundreds of the best men 
in it for his teachers and models, have made him a 
truly accomplished man in the line of his special duty : 
"a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly 
^;»r;Hi*><T *k«> \^7ofri of truth," 



J74 



CHAPTER XIII. 

BIBLE STUDY AND BIBLE WORK. 

IN the earlier years of Mr. Moody's work for Christ, 
his sermons and addresses, though often founded 
upon a text of Scripture, were largely made up of 
personal incidents, arguments drawn from surround- 
ing scenes and circumstances ; fervid personal appeals 
to Christians, inciting them to greater activity ; and 
earnest calls to sinners, urging them at once to repent 
and believe the Gospel. 

The readiness with which he could appropriate 
every useful thought and thing which came within 
his reach, enabled him to do an amount of preaching 
which was marvellous for a man of his meagre at- 
tainments and his very limited time for study. He 
reckoned all sermons and addresses which he heard 
or read as so much lawful plunder. Of this he made 
no secret. He would sometimes say to a minister : — 

" I heard you preach from such a text, at such a 
time ; and I went home and preached that same 
sermon to my people." 

Rev. Dr. Savage mentions a discourse which Mr. 
Moody found in a little tract, entitled, " Quench not 



FORAGING FOR SERMONS. 175 

the Spirit," and which he preached with such telling 
effect that twenty persons were converted by it. But 
it is doubtful whether the author himself would have 
recognised it in Mr. Moody's version. 

When at a loss for a subject, he would go to his 
friends, at their offices or homes, and converse with 
them, until some remark started a train of thought in 
his mind ; when he would rush with it to his study, 
or sometimes even to the platform. If he met any 
one from whom it seemed probable he might obtain 
an idea for use in his pulpit, he would salute him 
with, — 

"Give me something out of your heart. Tell me 
something about Christ." 

At table, in the Farweli Hall restaurant, where he 
and his confreres dined together, he would ask one 
and another, round the table, — 

"What has been your best thought to-day ? " 

Being always surrounded by active, studious, and 
consecrated people, he thus possessed an almost 
unfailing source from which to draw the outlines and 
suggestions of his sermons and addresses. Thus, 
his widely-extended travels, his intense religious life, 
and the constant recurrence of striking conversions 
and other powerful incidents under his ministry or 
observation, enabled him to keep alive the interest 
of his great congregations at home, and made him a 
most effective platform speaker abroad. 

But there was something still better in store for him : 
even the inexhaustibletreasures of the Holy Scriptures. 
These he already read with intense delight, and on 
their promises he relied for his daily bread, as well 



i;6 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

as for the maintenance of his spiritual health and 
strength. But to the divine art of expounding them 
he had not yet attained. 

" The words which I speak unto you, they are Spirit 
and they are Life," said the Saviour. 

"The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of 
God," said Paul. 

" Man doth not live by bread only, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord 
doth man live," said Moses, in his dying charge to 
Israel. 

God was about to reveal this hidden wisdom to His 
servant, in a manner at once loving and impressive ; 
and to a degree which should make him one of the 
most successful Bible teachers of his times. 

One Saturday, as he was about leaving home to 
spend the Sabbath at a distant convention, he said 
to his wife : " I have received a letter from Harry 
Moorhouse, an Englishman who calls himself the 
' Boy preacher,' saying he will be in Chicago to-day, 
and will preach for me if I wish it. It is too late to 
get any one else, and I suppose we must let him try 
it in the morning; but if he makes a failure, you must 
tell the deacons to find some one else for the evening, 
or let them hold a prayer-meeting." 

On his return the next week, Mr. Moody anxiously 
inquired what sort of a preacher Harry Moorhouse 
had proved to be. 

" He is a wonderful preacher," was the reply. " On 
Sunday morning he preached from the text, 'God 
so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten 
Son, that whoso believeth in Him should not perish 



SEVEN SERMONS FROM ONE TEXT. 177 

but have everlasting life/ The people were so much 
interested, that a crowd filled the church in the 
evening, when he took the same text again ; and so 
wonderfully did he explain it that the deacons have 
asked him to preach every night this week." 

That week was a memorable one. Night after 
night Mr. Moorhouse preached to immense congre- 
gations, taking the same text every time ; until he 
made the love of God appear the central truth of the 
whole Bible. At the close of the seventh sermon 
from the same words, he said, — 

" If I were to die to-night, and go up to heaven, 
and there meet Gabriel, who stands in the presence 
of God ; and if I were to ask him how much God loves 
sinners, this is what I think he would say : ' God so 
loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, 
that whoso believeth in Him should not perish but 
have everlasting life.' " 

When the meetings were over, Mr. Moorhouse said 
to Mr. Moody, — 

* You are sailing on the wrong tack. If you will 
change your course, and learn to preach God's words 
instead of your own, He will make you a great 
power for good/' 

The other results of these seven sermons from one 
text cannot now be reckoned up; but to Mr. Moody 
they were a revelation from heaven. He began to see 
that the Word of the Lord giveth light : he began to 
understand something about comparing Scripture 
with Scripture : the wonderful panorama of Divine 
truth, which he had seen unfolded, opened to him 
a new world. From this time he began, as never 

12 



178 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

before, to study the Gospel of the grace of God, and 
to search for the hidden mysteries of His Word. 
The exhortation of Paul came home to him with 
tremendous force, — 

" I charge thee, therefore, before God, and the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead 
at His appearing and His kingdom; PREACH THE 
Word." 

But the great question was how to acquire such 
a knowledge of the Word as should enable him to 
preach it. He had no time to study books ; neither 
had he the books to study. 

His learned and faithful friend, the Rev. Dr. Patter- 
son, had some time before advised him to commence 
a course of reading, and had made a list of books 
which should constitute a kind of short course in 
exegesis and theology : but he had never found leisure 
to begin it ; and the longer he waited for the time to 
come when he could conveniently do so, the farther it 
seemed away. 

But Mr. Moorhouse said, "You only need one 
book for the study of the Bible." 

Mr. Moody responded, "You must have studied a 
great many books to come by your knowledge of it." 

"No," was the reply. "Since I began to be an 
evangelist, I have been a man of one book. If a 
text of Scripture troubles me, I ask another text to 
explain it ; and if this will not answer, I carry it 
straight to the Lord." 

Here was a new scheme of education for the pulpit : 
every man his own theological seminary ; the only 
text-book, the Bible ; instead of Greek and Hebrew, 



A MAN OF ONE BOOK. 179 

the language of prayer ; for professors and teachers, 
the apostles and prophets, with Christ and the Holy 
Spirit as Head over all. In this school even he might 
become a scholar 

Mr. Moorhouse had been surprised to find that 
Mr. Moody's congregation did not bring their Bibles 
to meeting. " You should have God's own Word in 
your hands," said he; "so that you may know whether 
my words are right and true," — and during his short 
stay with them, he introduced the fashion with which 
he was familiar at home, and which has been kept up 
by that congregation «ver since, of a constant use of 
the Bible, not only in the pulpit, but also in the pew. 

Mr. Moody was so much impressed with the power 
of this " man of one book," that he asked him to show 
them how to study it as he had done. Accordingly, 
Mr. Moorhouse appointed a meeting at Mr. Moody's 
house, at which fifty or sixty persons were present, 
and there held the first "Bible Reading" of which 
there is any record in America. 

He had no idea of inaugurating a revolution in the 
method of preaching in America ; but that was what 
he actually did. The beginning was small enough ; 
but, already, the method of Bible study and Bible 
work which he showed to Mr. Moody and his little 
company of delighted friends that night, is coming 
into high favour and extensive use, not only by 
evangelists and lay helpers, but by the ministers 
themselves. 

Every one had brought a Bible, as directed. After 
prayer for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, who 
had at first inspired the writing, and must now in- 



180 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

spire the understanding of the Scriptures, the " boy 
preacher " led them on a voyage of discovery from 
Genesis to Revelation ; tracing the promises, prophecy 
and history of REDEMPTION. On this theme they 
found the Word of God to be especially rich and full ; 
it was, indeed, the centre around which all the Scrip- 
tures revolved ; and so wonderfully did it become 
impressed upon their minds, that it seemed to them 
like a new revelation. Text after text was found and 
joined to the wonderful series, until they appeared like 
links of a long golden chain, holding a broken and 
ruined world together, and binding it fast to God's 
mercy-seat. This was Mr. Moody's first lesson in 
systematic theology. 

But so great a revolution in his habits of study and 
preaching was not to be brought about all at once. 
He saw the land from afar, and desired exceedingly 
to go in and possess it. He gave up his plan for a 
course of reading, and, a second time in sight of the 
shores of learning, put boldly out to sea. His old 
habits generally ran away with him when he stood 
up to preach ; but in his study he followed the new 
method. 

His world was so full of wonderful and instructive 
scenes, that the stories of them seemed almost to tell 
themselves. It was hard for him to find time for a 
great deal of Bible in his hailstorm harangues ; but 
he kept sturdily at it, trying to acquire the biblical 
method of preaching, in which was the hiding of the 
power that was to be revealed to him in days to come. 
From that time he ceased to urge people to begin 
their religious life by finding something to do for 



A NEW DEPARTURE. 181 

Christ ; but insisted that, first of all, they should let 
Christ do something for them. If they would only 
believe, Christ would help them to be and to do. 

He began to understand the privilege and duty of 
entire consecration and perfect love. He ceased to 
teach that a holy heart must be attained by a life- 
long struggle with self, the world, and the wicked 
one ; but urged sinners to accept it as a gift from the 
Lord Himself. Conversion was instantaneous ; the 
warfare was to come afterwards. This, he discovered, 
was the doctrine preached by the prophet Ezekiel :- 

"A new heart also will I give you, and a new 
spirit will I put within you : and I will take away 
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give 
you a heart of flesh." 

He began to study the Bible on his knees. 

In this he made rapid progress. Some of the hard 
words did indeed continue to plague him ; but he soon 
found out that the longest words in the Bible, as every- 
where else, were not apt to be of the most importance : 
so he followed the example of the worthy Scotch 
minister, who was accustomed to say to his congre- 
gation, when he came upon a Scripture passage which 
was too wonderful for him, — 

" Brethren, this is a difficult text ; a very difficult 
text ; but, my brethren, let us not be discouraged by 
it. Let us look the difficulty boldly in the face, — and 
pass on." 

There were very few practical and saving doctrines 
in the Word of God through which he could not pray 
his way. Like his friend Moorhouse, he became a 
"man of one book"; that is, a Bagster's Bible. This 



182 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

he carried about with him continually, in order to use 
his leisure moments in studying it. His sermons 
began to be rich in the wealth of the Scriptures; and, 
beyond all doubt, it was this new acquirement which, 
with God's blessing, opened out before him his career 
of almost boundless usefulness, and placed the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven in his hand. 

The Rev. Dr. Roy, his former pastor at Plymouth 
Church, mentions a sermon which he heard Mr. 
Moody preach on " The Compassion of Christ " ; in 
which he seemed like a man inspired, and under 
which the great audience were moved like the forests 
swept by the winds. 

When it was over, the Doctor inquired of him how 
he had prepared such a sermon. He answered, " I 
got to thinking the other day about the compassion 
of Christ ; so I took the Bible and began to read it 
over, to find out what it said on that subject. I 
prayed over the texts as I went along, until the 
thought of His infinite compassion overpowered me, 
and I could only lie on the floor of my study, with my 
face in the open Bible, and cry like a little child." 

The visit of that great English preacher, the Rev. 
Dr. Punshon, was another godsend to him. 

The Doctor preached for him in Farwell Hall 
several times. His great sermon on " Daniel in 
Babylon " was especially blessed to Mr. Moody. 
The vivid picture of that fearless prince and prophet 
showed him that the characters of the Bible were 
actual men and women. It was not their different 
circumstances which made them different from other 
men, but only their perfect faith in God. 



THE BIBLE BIOGRAPHIES. 183 

« « ' — ■ — ■ 

A new field was thus opened to him ; and through 
that whole summer, after making the acquaintance 
of this hero, Mr. Moody studied and preached the 
biographies of the Bible. Abraham and Moses, 
Daniel and Paul, Noah and Samuel, David and 
John, one after another, were called to rise before 
his vision, and show themselves to his amazed and 
delighted congregations. Far and wide he preached 
these sermons ; and all the time he sought to impress 
this truth upon his hearers : " Whatsoever YE shall 
ask in faith, believing, YE shall receive." " God is no 
respecter of persons ; but IN EVERY NATION he that 
feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted 
with Him." 

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him 
for righteousness." 

" Daniel was taken out of the den, and no manner 
of hurt was found upon him, because he believed in 
his God." 

He insisted, with the greatest emphasis, that the 
central power in religion was faith — faith in Jesus 
Christ — faith in the Christ of the Gospels ; and so 
thoroughly did he give himself up to this great truth, 
that he began to feel the force of the "boy preacher's" 
prophecy, and to say to himself in his closet — " If I can 
only learn to believe as those men believed, what is there 
to hinder God from laying some great work on me ? " 

After this, his desire for Bible knowledge led him 
to leave his pressing work at home, and make a 
voyage to England ; where he might have the help 
of certain brethren who had become mighty in the 
Scriptures, by becoming " men of one book." Not 



184 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

many months before, he had crossed the Atlantic, 
with his family, for the benefit of their health ; and 
when some of his friends asked him why he went so 
soon again, he answered : — 

" I am going to England to study the Bible." 

It would appear that, during his short stay, he used 
his knowledge as fast as he acquired it ; for, in those 
three months of Bible study, he preached about ninety 
sermons, besides attending many meetings for inquiry 
and prayer. But no great success attended him : God 
was only sending him to school. 

After this it began to be his habit, in the social 
meetings, to say, " Tell us your experience in Bible 
language." 

When any one expressed an opinion on any doc- 
trine of religion, he would straightway inquire : 
u Have you God's Word for it ? " 

He began also to be impatient at those figures of 
speech and stock phrases which people sometimes 
use in speaking to anxious sinners. " Give them the 
words of Christ," he would say ; " man's words are 
good for nothing, but Christ's words are spirit and life." 

He gave up his reliance on exhortations and anec- 
dotes, as a means of awakening sinners ; and, though 
he continued to use them, it was only to explain or 
enforce some text of Scripture. The idea that people 
must first be interested and attracted by some worldly 
wisdom, and so made ready to hear the Word of God, 
he held to be a delusion and a snare. He would say 
to those who argued for this notion of the schools : 

" Don't you think God knows best how to interest 
people ? " 



THE TEACHERS' MEETING. 1S5 

Thus, from being merely a point of departure, from 
which his sermons wandered into highways and by- 
ways, the Word of God came to be the entire plane 
of their projection, and a good part of their solid 
substance. 

A very important help to Mr. Moody, and, through 
him and his friends, to tens of thousands of other 
Christian workers in America, was the introduction 
of the International Sunday School Lessons. 

The idea of turning the thoughts and prayers of the 
whole English-speaking world upon the same passage 
of Scripture at the same time, appears to have come 
directly from God. The impetus to the study of the 
Bible which was given by it, is something which 
would have been incredible if it had been foretold. It 
is the most notable " advance along the whole line " 
which the Church militant has taken for more than 
a hundred years. It deserves to be classed with 
the great Methodist revival, and the first inauguration 
of Sunday-schools. It is on this account that, to the 
heavy and costly commentaries on the whole Bible, 
which were beyond the reach of the great mass of 
Sunday-school teachers, have been added many 
little books containing the ripest fruits of Christian 
scholarship, in exposition of the particular lessons so 
wisely selected by the International Committee. 

Soon after the National Series — which preceded the 
International — came into use in Chicago, the Young 
Men's Christian Association devoted the Saturday 
noon prayer-meeting to the study of the Sunday- 
school lesson for the following day, As almost all 

its working members were also active Sunday-school 

* 
9 



1 86 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

workers, they entered studiously and zealously into 
this new exercise, which at once became very popular, 
and attracted large numbers of persons not hitherto 
connected with the Association. 

The prayer-room of the first Farwell Hall, holding 
a thousand people, was filled to overflowing every 
Saturday ; and after it was burned, and the meeting 
was removed to the lecture-room of the First Metho- 
dist Church, the interest became so great that it was 
found necessary to open the audience-room, which, 
week after week, was filled, even to the galleries and 
the aisles, with men and women, eager, like the 
Athenians, to hear some new thing; but, unlike them, 
anxious to hear it concerning the old truths of God's 
Word. 

Mr. Moody seemed to communicate to the entire 
Association his own new and wonderful grasp of the 
Holy Scriptures. Pastors of the leading city churches 
put forth their best efforts in conducting these Satur- 
day Bible meetings ; while many a quaint and homely 
interpretation, from some unlearned but devoted heart, 
gave new freshness and vigour to the exercise. 

It was the social meeting at Corinth over again, on 
a large scale. When they carne together, many a one, 
if not every one, had a psalm, or a tongue, or a reve- 
lation, or an interpretation ; and the apostle's charge, 
"Let all things be done unto edifying," was obeyed 
with wonderful fidelity and success. The skill in thfe 
Bible work to which Mr. Moody, Mr. Jacobs, Major 
Whittle, and others, attained, was one of the greatest 
spiritual acquirements recorded in the history of the 
Church in America \ and their mastery of the Word 



A BIBLE SCHOOL. 187 

becoming known abroad, they came to be in great 
request all over the United States and in Canada. 

Encouraged by the remarkable favour which the 
Lord had shown him as steward of the Word of Life, 
Mr. Moody devised a plan for a Bible school ; in which 
those who were willing to- devote their time to the 
Lord's work, as evangelists, exhorters, Bible-readers, 
and the like, should receive a special and gratuitous 
course of training, both in the sense of the Scriptures, 
and also in the best methods of teaching and preach- 
ing them. 

His departure for England, where the Lord has so 
signally blessed his labours, obliged Mr. Moody to 
commit this enterprise to other hands. And here, as 
always, God had a servant ready for the work. 

Miss Emeline Dryer, an accomplished Christian 
lady, holding the highest educational position in the 
West, as the female head of the faculty of the Illinois 
State Normal University, had been moved by the 
Lord to come to Chicago, and devote herself to the 
sorrowful task of trying to help those lost women 
who are so far away from, and generally neglected 
by, all ordinary means of grace. 

It was a picture fit for angels to gaze upon : a 
learned and honoured Christian woman, stepping 
down from her high position to become a teacher 
and evangelist in the reformatory institution known 
as "The Erring Women's Refuge." 

The capacity and devotion of this heroic woman 
were not long in becoming known ; and, after the Great 
Fire, her services were called into requisition in a 
wider sphere,_ as secretary of the Women's Aid Society. 



183 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

This Society, like many others for missionary work, 
came naturally into fellowship and labour with the 
Young Men's Christian Association : and her ability 
having been proved for two years, during which she 
conducted the great Bible-class in Mr. Moody's church, 
and, at the same time, several girls' and mothers' 
meetings in various parts of the city, the Bible school 
was placed in her charge. It is now in successful 
operation, and is regarded by Mr. Moody as one of 
the most important of all his various projects for help- 
ing on the kingdom of God. It is supported wholly 
by voluntary contributions from some most judicious 
Christian people, who already see in it the beginning 
of a great school of Christ, equal in power and use- 
fulness to Mr. Spurgeon's famous college in London. 

The " Bible readings," which have been so much 
blessed of God, and so much enjoyed by Mr. 
Moody's audiences, both in America and Great 
Britain, have a striking history of their own. 

It is a sad confession to make, in this late year of 
grace, that anything which can fitly be described 
as a Bible reading is new. But Mr. Moody has 
certainly introduced a method of handling the 
Word of God which has excited deep interest among 
thoughtful and judicious Christian people, and is 
regarded as a valuable contribution to the meagre 
stock of Scriptural exercises h'itherto practised in our 
churches. 

The use of Scripture in sermons has become 
lamentably small. The text is often used merely 
as a starting-point, or as the statement of a theme 
which is to be worked out with all the arts of rhetoric, 



THE POVERTY OF THE PULPIT, 189 

and so much of logic as the author may be able to 
command ; with here and there a quotation brought 
in as a kind of respectful notice due to the Bible, 
or as a suitable method of rounding off a period. 
Even in some most orthodox theological seminaries, 
young men are but poorly trained to know and use 
the Scriptures. Systematic and sectarian theology, 
ancient literature, homiletics, rhetoric, and elocu- 
tion, leave little time for the reverent and prayerful 
study of the Word of God. These schools send out 
into the world their annual instalments of professional 
ministers, with heads more or less full of clerical learn- 
ing ; but, with all their study, there is one thing they 
have not learned : namely, how to '* preach the Word." 

The poverty of the American pulpit in this respect 
is becoming more and more apparent; and the Church 
is occasionally sending abroad for men to fill some 
of its highest pastorates; not because the ministry of 
America is deficient in piety or culture or eloquence, 
but because it is deficient in a thorough understanding 
of the Holy Scriptures, and in that particular use of 
them which is called " expository preaching." 

Other evangelists have, of late, been led to become 
" men of one book " ; and the fact that these persons, 
taken from the level of the people, wholly wanting 
in professional training, but mighty in the Scriptures, 
have been honoured of God in leading more souls to 
Him than any other class of men now living, is 
another showing of the truth of the Saviour's saying — 
" The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and 
they are life." 

This lesson Mr. Moody had partially learned of his 



190 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

friend Mr. Moorhouse; but it was to be burned into 
his heart in letters of fire. 

During a considerable part of the year 1 871, he 
passed through a terrible struggle of soul with respect 
to himself and his w r ork. He used to weep and pray- 
in agony in his closet, and then, with a sorrowful 
face, go out to his public duties. He was constantly 
begging his friends to pray for him, Having made 
the acquaintance of two very aged women, who were 
remarkable for their lives of faith in spite of great 
afflictions, he used to go to them like a broken-hearted 
child, and ask them to teach him how to trust wholly 
in God. 

One great torment of his soul was the thought that 
he was an ignorant man, and yet was looked upon as 
a religious teacher. He began to wonder if he were 
not one of those blind guides ; and if, some time, he 
would not find himself in the ditch. If the devil had 
known just what was in store for this man, he could 
not have tempted him more cunningly or pressed 
him harder. But still he went on with his work. He 
dared not stop, though he was sometimes so morti- 
fied by his errors of speech and his lack of worldly 
wisdom, that he was almost ready to sink. 

At last he reached the point where he was willing 
to give even his ignorance to Christ, and to be just as 
weak as Christ wanted him to be. Then he began to 
lay hold of the lines of power. Every promise was 
like the valve-lever of an engine in his hand. 

The waves of fire which swept away his church, his 
home, and his beloved Farwell Hall, could not narm 
him now. But having no place among the miles of 



IN DEEP WATERS. 191 

ashes where he could go on with his work, he went 
away to the Atlantic coast, trusting to God to bring 
him into some field of labour. 

He reached Brooklyn at the time when Dr. Cuyler's 
new Mission Chapel was just completed ; and on 
going to see it with a friend, he said, — 

" I should like to hold some meetings here : the 
air of the place seems full of Heaven." This was 
repeated to the Doctor, and immediately he received 
an invitation to do as he had desired. 

But the meetings dragged heavily. Few people 
attended, and none were awakened. At last, -when 
the congregation had fallen to eighteen persons, a 
good lady said to him : — 

"Mr. Moody, we have plenty of preaching in 
Brooklyn ; but if you would tell us something about 
the Bible, perhaps it would be blessed to us." 

It would appear that he had fallen into his old 
style of address at this new place : but he at once 
accepted the suggestion, and set about preparing 
some exercises in Bible study, after the manner of 
Mr. Moorhouse several years before, but with such 
improvements as his experience and skill suggested. 
Strangely enough, he had never made use of this 
particular method until now. 

Telling them all to bring their Bibles, he appointed 
a study for the following afternoon. At once the power 
of God came down. Day after day the meetings in- 
creased. A great revival broke out, and spread from 
the Mission into the home Church. Sinners on every 
hand were inquiring what they must do to be saved. 

From Brooklyn he went to Philadelphia, preaching 



192 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

and reading "the Word"; and the Lord greatly 
blessed his labours there also. 

When he returned to Chicago he at once com- 
menced the " Bible readings " ; and in a short time 
they became a favourite religious service, and were 
attended by large numbers of the most intelligent 
Christian people. Many pastors, learning the art 
from Mr. Moody, made use of it in their own 
pulpits ; and several lay evangelists, who had been in 
doubt about their call to "preach," hailed this new 
method as something which was, without question, a 
fit and helpful thing to do. 

The success of these " readings " in England, and 
especially in Scotland, where the people know very 
well how to handle a Bible, is God's own testimony 
to the saving power of His Word. Mr. Moody's ad- 
dresses are mighty, Mr. Sankey's singing is heavenly ; 
but the " Bible readings/' are so little human and so 
much Divine, that they, more than anything else, 
have been used in awakening sinners and building up 
the saints. 

These " Bible readings " consist in a careful and 
systematic grouping of Scripture texts, all relating to 
a single central truth ; which, by this method, is 
vividly impressed upon mind and heart. After sing- 
ing, and prayer, the congregation take their Bibles ; 
and the leader reads the list of texts which he expects 
to use, asking, after each one, "Who will read this 
when I call for it?" Or the texts may be written 
out ; or chapter and verse noted on a piece of paper, 
and the slips distributed to those who are to read 
them, if preferred. 



THE BIBLE READINGS. 193 

The entire list of selected Scriptures being thus 
assigned to persons in the congregation, the exercise 
opens by calling for the text first in order. The one 
who has taken it reads it aloud ; and the leader 
explains, illustrates, and enforces it briefly, and then 
calls for the next. Sometimes one person is ap- 
pointed beforehand to find, and read the texts as 
they are called for ; and sometimes the leader reads 
them, asking all the congregation to turn to them 
and read with him. Thus the Lord is brought into 
the congregation to speak for Himself. No wonder 
He honours such a use of His Word ! 

The "Spiritual Songs" of Mr. Sankey are well 
adapted to open the hearts of the audience and pre- 
pare them to receive the good seed which is so 
bountifully sowed by Mr. Moody, through the medi- 
ums of his "Bible Readings" and preaching. Mr. 
Sankey's rich voice gives a great charm to his singing, 
and seems particularly suited to the nature of the 
songs and purposes for which he uses it, and its great 
reputation induces thousands to attend the meetings 
solely from a desire to listen to it. Eventually many 
of these persons become personally interested in the 
great subject presented to them so tenderly and 
sweetly by Mr. Sankey in his songs, and which is 
impressed upon them by the clear discussions of the 
"Bible Readings," and driven home and enforced by 
the powerful and faithful preaching of Mr. Moody, — and 
become converted. How large a share of the glorious 
results of the combined efforts of these two faithful 
co-workers for Christ will, at the last great day, when 
all secrets shall be made known, be attributed to the 



194 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

songs of Mr. Sankey, will only then appear; but cer- 
tain it is, that many a redeemed spirit will remember 
how his bosom melted into tenderness as the clear 
enunciation of Mr. Sankey made plain the story of the 
love of Christ, in words which floated upon waves 
of liquid melody that filled the room, and how this 
tenderness deepened into sincere repentance under 
the convicting appeals and powerful personal applica- 
tions of Mr. Moody. 

It seems not out of place here to give one or two 
of the songs most used by Mr. Sankey. His favourites 
are the two called "Ninety and Nine," and "Jesus of 
Nazareth Passeth By." The first was found by him 
in an obscure Scotch newspaper; the last was written 
by Miss Campbell. Both were set to music by Mr. 
Sankey, who is reported to have said that these two 
had done more good than all the other songs in his 
collection. They are truly sermons in themselves. 

NINETY AND NINE. 

1. There were ninety and nine that safely lay 

In the shelter of the fold, 
But one wis out on the hills away, 

Far off fr >m the gates of gold. 
Away on the mountains wild and bare, 
Away from the tender Shepheid s care. 

2. "Lord, Thou hast here Thy ninety and nine; 

Are they not enough for Tht e ? " 
But the Shepherd m-.de answer: "This of Mine 

Has wandered away from Me ; 
And although the road be rough and steep 
I go to the desert to find My sheep." 

3. But none of the ransomed ever knew 

I low deep were the waters crossed; 
Nor how dark was the night that the L' x rd passed through 

Ere He found His sheep that was lost. 
Out in the desert He heard its cry — 
Sick, and helpless, and ready to die. 



SONG WORSHIP. 195 



"Lord, whence are those blood drops all the way 
That mark out the mountains track?" 

"They were shed for one who had gone astray 
Ere the Shepherd could bring him back." 

"Lord, whence are thy hands so rent and torn?" 

"They are pierced to-night by many a thorn." 

And all thro' the mountains, thunder-riven, 

And up from the rocky steep, 
There rose a cry to the gate of heaven, 

" Rejoice ! I have found My sheep J " 
And the angels echoed around the throne, 
" Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own ! " 

JESUS OF NAZARETH PASSETH BY. 

1. What means this eager, anxious throng, 
Which moves with busy haste along — 
These wondrous gatherings day by day ? 
What means this strange commotion, pray? 
In accents hushed the throng reply, 
"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 

2. Who is this Jesus ? Why should He 
The city move so mightily? 

A passing stranger, has He skill 
To move the multitude at will? 
Again the stirring tones reply, 
"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 

3. Jesus ! 'tis He who once below 

Man's pathway trod, 'mid pain and woe; 
And burdened ones, where'er He came, 
Brought out their sick, and deaf, and lame. 
The blind rejoiced to hear the cry, 
" Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 

4. Again He comes ! From place to place 
His holy footprints we can trace. 

He pauseth at our threshold — nay, 
He enters — condescends to stay. 
Shall we not gladly raise the cry? — 
"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 

5. Ho ! all ye heavy-laden, come ! 
Here's pardon, comfort, rest, and home. 
Ye wanderers from a Father's face, ' 
Return, accept His proffered grace. 

Ye tempted ones, there's refuge nigh; 
" Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." 

6. But if you still His call refuse, 
And all His wondrous love abuse, 
Soon will lie sadly from you turn, 
Your bitter prayer for pardon spurn. 
"Too late ! too la f e ! " will be the cry— 
"Jesus of Nazareth has passed by " 



196 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE HOME AND THE TABERNACLE. 

In the old family Bible already mentioned there is 
the following record, under the head of Marriages : — 

" D. L. Moody to Emma C. Revell ; 28th August 
1862." 

Matrimony is the oldest means of grace. 

" Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing," says 
a high authority : a statement in which Mr. Moody 
has special reason to concur. The helpmeet of his 
home is a lady for some years a helper in his Mission. 
His first acquaintance with her dates from the little 
Mission Sunday-school in which he was offered a 
class provided he would gather it himself. 

This book does not claim to be a biography, and 
has little to do with Mr. Moody's social or domestic 
life ; but his home has been so blessed, and has added 
so greatly to his usefulness, that this record would 
be incomplete, in a very important particular, if no 
mention were made of it. 

Not until after he had commenced a new home for 
his much-loved North Market Mission School, did he 
make a home for himself. As in every step of his 
life, he married and set up housekeeping by faith. A 



A HAPPY HOME. 197 

very small cottage satisfied his ambition as well as 
his wants. As might be expected, this was a most 
cheery and hospitable home. It was generally full 
of visitors, both old friends and strangers ; and all 
the poor people of the neighbourhood soon learned 
the number on its door. The home, like its master, 
was full and running over with fun, sympathy, and 
religion. Mr. Moody would play practical jokes on 
his wife and his guests, laugh and jump and shout 
with the children, — the happiest child of them all : 
and in the midst of the merriment, some text of 
Scripture would flash upon him, or some subject 
for a sermon would present itself; and instantly 
he would say, "Get out your Bibles," — and, in a 
trice, would turn the whole household into a Bible 
class. 

If a person came in who was unconverted, he would 
leave everything else, and immediately inquire about 
his soul ; and, if he found him at all under the influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, almost before he knew it he 
would have him on his knees in prayer. 

Whatever cares or troubles weighed upon his mind 
during the day, he always left them behind on coming 
home. That was his refuge, — a little world in itself; 
and into it the cares of his great work outside were 
seldom permitted to come. 

Two children — a boy and a girl — were born to him ; 
and a happier father or a more devoted mother it 
would not be easy to find. From their earliest under- 
standing Mrs. Moody was accustomed to pray with 
them daily, and to teach them that they belonged to 
the Lord Jesus. 



198 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

It would seem, from the stories which he tells of 
them, that they inherited his own intensity of life 
and feeling. One day he found his little boy with an 
elegantly illustrated Bible on his lap, in the act of 
digging out the eyes of a picture of Judas Iscariot 
with a pair of scissors. On being asked why he was 
doing such mischief, the little fellow referred to the 
lesson read at prayers that morning, which had been 
the betrayal of our Lord ; and his indignation at the 
conduct of Judas had taken this form of expression. 

Mr. Moody's habit of trusting in the Lord for daily 
bread sometimes brought the little household into 
great straits. After his marriage, the same as before, 
he refused all offers of salary from any source what- 
ever, assured that the Lord, who had taken care of 
him when he was alone, would, no doubt, take care 
of his wife and children also. This confidence was 
fully justified ; for, though sometimes almost in sight 
of it, they never came to actual distress. 

One of the most remarkable gifts which the Lord 
sent to His faithful servant was a new and completely 
furnished home. 

An old friend had erected a row of elegant houses ; 
and one of these he privately set apart for Mr. Moody, 
free of rent, if his other friends would furnish it for 
him. The enterprise was undertaken with great 
spirit, and the house was fitted up from basement 
to attic in thorough and comfortable style. Soft 
carpets; handsome furniture and ornaments for hall 
and parlours, including life-size portraits of Mr. 
Moody and his wife ; a book-case containing a large 
and serviceable library ; dining-room, bedrooms, and 



A HAPPY NEW YEAR. 199 



kitchen all in order ; china, silver, and linen for the 
table ; — all articles required for housekeeping, were 
tastefully and lovingly arranged. 

Early on New Year's morning Mr. Moody and his 
family were captured and can ied off in a coach, they 
knew not why, or whither. It stopped before a fine- 
looking row, and he was conducted into a house, 
which, to his surprise, was full of his acquaintances 
and friends. After the greetings had been ex- 
changed, and he was wondering what it all could 
mean, the Rev. Dr. Patterson, on behalf of the 
company, presented him with a lease of the house 
and the free gift of all it contained, as a token of 
love and respect for his simple and earnest Chris- 
tian character, and of gratitude for his faithful 
labours, under which they and their city had been 
so largely blessed. 

It was more like a dream than a reality. Like the 
Gospel, it seemed almost too good to be true. Hand 
in hand, speechless with wonder and weeping for joy 
Mr. Moody and his wife made the round of the beau- 
tiful 10 ms — so much finer than they had ever hoped 
to possess ; and when they had seen and admired 
them all, he tried to thank his friends for their 
kindness. In broken sentences he told them how 
good the Lord had always been to him, and that he 
had not trusted Him in vain. 

When that company broke up, it was with the feel- 
ing that they had done all this under the Lord's 
own direction, who, in this way, had determined to 
honour the faith of His servant who had forsaken all 
to follow Him. 



200 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

In this new home he had the pleasure of entertain- 
ing his old pastor, Dr. Kirk ; here he received the 
visits of many of the most distinguished Christians of 
America; and here, as in the little cottage, there was 
always comfort for the sorrowing and help for the 
poor. 

But this home, with all its precious memories, was of 
only short duration. On the 8th and 9th of October, 
1 87 1, a tidal wave of flame swept the city, leaving 
on an area of one mile in width by four miles in 
length, but a single house remaining. Within this 
fated region had stood the second Farwell Hall, Mr. 
Moody's church, and his beautiful home — the New 
Year's gift from his friends. From the site of the 
Illinois Street Church, in every direction, as far as the' 
eye could reach, only ruins were to be seen. All his 
parishioners were driven from their homes, saving 
nothing of their worldly goods except the trifle they 
could carry away in their hands. 

Leaving his family at the house of a friend, beyond 
the reach of the flames, he at once began the work of 
feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless, who 
swarmed by thousands in the churches, public build- 
ings, and open lots about the city. The first and 
chief depository of supplies was in the relief depart- 
ment of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
These Mr. Moody distributed with a bountiful hand. 
It was his especial delight to give food and raiment 
to all who came to him hungry and half clothed. But 
some unworthy persons, taking advantage of his 
tenderness of heart, made spoil of the supplies in- 
tended for the really needy. 



FRIENDS IN NEED 201 

Hearing of this, and learning that complaints were 
made of his too bountiful distribution, he at once 
withdrew from the work of relief, and started for the 
east, with the double purpose of holding revival 
services and of raising a little money to build some 
poor barrack or shed, where he might again establish 
his church and school. 

A cordial welcome awaited him from the Rev. Dr. 
Cuyler and his people, in Brooklyn, who gladly gave 
him sympathy and assistance. His revival work in 
that city has already been mentioned. 

He next went to Philadelphia, holding religious 
services in the evenings, while the days were devoted 
to raising money for rebuilding his ruined church. 

Some of the brethren, among whom was his old 
friend George H. Stuart, and Mr. Wannamaker, of 
The Sunday School Times, finding that his work of 
collecting progressed but slowly, said to him : '• Mr. 
Moody, how much money do you need ? " 

* If I had a thousand dollars, I could build a great 
box that would hold my Sunday-school," was the 
reply. 

" You shall have three thousand, at least," said 
they ; and they were as good as their word. 

The brethren at home had secured the use of a lot in 
the midst of the burnt district, not far from the ruins 
of their church, on which they proposed to build a 
rough structure in the simplest and cheapest manner. 
It was at first supposed that a roof forty feet by 
sixty would cover all the people who could be gathered 
in such a place. But Mr. Moody's faith looked for- 
ward to the speedy rebuilding of the city ; and in his 



202 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

frequent despatches announcing the progress of his 
subscription-list, he continually urged them to " build 
large'' The new Tabernacle was therefore made to 
cover the entire plot of ground, — a hundred and nine 
feet in length and seventy-five in width. It was a 
great enclosure built of rough timbers and boards, 
and lined with heavy paper, to keep out the cold. 
It was a single story in height, with a flat roof of 
paper, gravel, and tar; supported by lines of posts 
and beams like a stable. But it harmonized so 
entirely with the waste of ruins surrounding it, that 
the poor desolate creatures, living in wretched hovels 
and holes under the sidewalks, felt a strong attraction 
toward it, and were very much at home within its 
walls. 

The band of brethren left in charge by Mr. Moody 
were all without homes of their own, and some of them 
without the ordinary comforts of life. Having no 
money to give, they gave the labour of their hands, to 
help on with the Tabernacle ; while those working- 
people who were too poor to spare any time by day, 
came at night, and builded the best they knew. The 
work was pressed forward with the utmost haste, 
encouraged by despatches and remittances from 
the absent pastor ; and when it was ready for 
dedication he was sent for, to come home and meet 
again the remnant of his scorched and scattered flock. 

There were but few buildings in sight of the Taber- 
nacle when it was finished ; save, here and there, a 
little shanty built on the sheltered side of a blackened 
and crumbling wall ; and some of the brethren were 
anxious lest, from out this desolation, no consider- 



RE-UNION AFTER THE FIRE. 203 

able number of people could be gathered. But, 
to their surprise and joy, on the day of dedica- 
tion, crowds of children were seen picking their way 
among the ruins, and along the streets half blocked 
up with rubbish, coming from no one knew where, 
but drawn by the magical attraction of the promised 
reunion of their school. More than a thousand 
children were present at this first meeting, many 
of them accompanied by their parents. The great 
building was completely filled. 

Thus, a second time, Mr. Moody's church became a 
Mission; and the new Tabernacle came to be a greater 
wonder and blessing than even the old North Market 
Hall. The work of saving the bodies and souls of men, 
women, and children went forward there successfully 
and joyfully. The place was kept open and warm 
night and day, as a shelter to any homeless wanderer 
who might choose to enter. Religious services, in 
great number and variety, were in almost continual 
progress, from early afternoon until late in the even- 
ing, by which many houseless wanderers were brought 
within the sympathy of this loving and zealous 
brotherhood, and shown the way to a home in the 
heart of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. 

Mr. Moody, leaving his family with friends at the 
east, took lodgings in a little class-room in the great 
Tabernacle, with one of his faithful Sunday-school 
teachers as steward, cook, and man-of-all-work. His 
mornings were largely spen.t in searching out and 
relieving the families of his former congregation. 
Large quantities of clothing and provisions were sent 
to him for distribution ; which, being stored in the 



204 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

Tabernacle, made it a centre of interest to the hungry 
and destitute : a fact of which Mr. Moody was not 
slow to take advantage in trying to lead their hearts 
to Christ. He would say to some half-starved, 
shivering man who came to ask for assistance : 

" Here, take these clothes ; help yourself to these 
provisions, — all you can carry ; and promise me to 
thank God for them, on your knees, before you eat 
the flour and potatoes, or put on the coat and 
trousers." Sometimes noticing the evident distress of 
one who had seen better days and was too proud to 
ask help, he would send a messenger after him as 
he went out from the meeting, to inquire, confiden- 
tially, if there was anything he could do for him. 

But the constant aim of all his plans and labours 
was to save the souls of sinners. He would say : 
"What is the use of keeping these poor people's 
bodies a little longer out of the grave, and not trying 
to keep their souls out of hell ? " 

A hungry man was always more than welcome at 
his table in the little class-room. Hundreds of people, 
attracted by the bright lights and warm fires of the 
Tabernacle, came in to warm themselves ; and some 
one was always on the watch, ready to make both 
hunger and cold a reason for offering Christ and 
salvation, as well as food and shelter. 

During his absence, Mr. Moody had been glori- 
ously baptized with the Holy Ghost; and the presence 
of such a man, among such a congregation, was one 
of the best benedictions Heaven could send them. 
He was full of hope and happiness, though, like them, 
he had suffered the loss of all things. It was St. 



THE SCHOOL AMONG THE ASHES. 205 

Paul's experience over again : " Poor, but making 
many rich ; having nothing, and yet possessing all 
things." 

Wave after wave of revival swept the Tabernacle 
meetings ; crowds of people attended the almost con- 
stant service, weeping over their sins one day, and 
shouting over their pardon the next. Men and 
women, cast down and hopeless, coming to Mr. 
Moody for comfort and advice, seemed to absorb 
a portion of his overflowing gladness ; and went out 
to bear their sorrows, and struggle through their toils, 
with a stronger and more hopeful heart. 

A happier company than his great Sunday-school, 
thus literally sitting among the ashes, could hardly 
be found this side of heaven. The fire had taken 
away everything else, but it had left them Christ, and 
one another. In spite of all the troubles of the week, 
the Sabbath brought again the much-loved reunion ; 
and, with hearts all melted together, with teachers more 
loving than ever, and with Mr. Moody at their head, 
who was such a fountain of good cheer and happiness, 
this Sunday-school was the one bright spot in their 
shadowed lives. They came through the cold and 
snow for miles, wretchedly clad, and pinched with 
want, to hear about Christ, and to sing the Sunday- 
school songs, which are always full of happiness and 
heaven. Mr. Sankey, with his harmonium, was on 
the platform to lead their voices, or to sing for them 
the songs with which he has since charmed so many 
thousands, on both sides of the sea. Miss Dryer, the 
faithful helper in the Bible work, was also there. On 
week-days she held "mothers' meetings," to which 



2o6 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK, 



poor women came, from a distance of two or three 
miles, through the burnt district on foot. There were 
also sewing schools for girls, four or five afternoons 
a week ; where little fingers were kept busy making 
garments, which, when finished, were given to the 
makers ; and where singing, and prayer, and recitation 
of Scripture texts, and kind and helpful words from 
their teacher, made sewing schools an attractive means 
of grace. 

The following is a list of the regular Sunday 
services at the Tabernacle, during the year following 
the fire : — 

The Lord's Supper, every Sunday, at nine in the 
morning ; preaching, by Mr. Moody, at half-past ten, 
at the close of which he waited at the door, to greet 
the people as they passed out. Then, dinner in the 
class-room ; at which a number of the Sunday-school 
teachers were present, to talk over the work of the 
day. Immediately after dinner, a teachers' meeting, 
for the study of the lesson. At three o'clock the 
Sunday-school, with Mr. Moody for superintendent ; 
following it, a teachers' prayer-meeting, also led by 
him ; then supper, in the class-room ; then the Yoke- 
fellows' prayer-meeting. Preaching again at half-past 
seven ; after which Mr. Moody held a meeting for 
inquirers, which sometimes lasted far on into the 
night. 

Thus did God cause His servant to pass through 
the fire, that He might bring him out, not burned but 
tempered. His faith had been tried, and had not 
been found wanting. Now he was ready for glorious 
service. But for those days of struggle and those 



A TIM^.^Y GIFT. 207 



nights of toil, he might not have been able to bear 
the success which was in store for him. 

And now one last trial of his faith, before God puts 
the sharp sickle into his hand. 

He is called to England. God wants him there. 
He announces his intended departure to his family 
who are to go with him, and to his church who are to 
be left behind. He appoints the day to give them 
his parting message and to bid them farewell. 

But he has no money. He cannot pay his passage. 

The last day arrives ; to-night he is to go. No 
money! 

He will not ask it of men ; he can only ask it of 
God. 

A few hours before he and his family are to take 
the train, a friend, who knows nothing of his needs, 
bethinks him that Mr. Moody will want some money 
" after he readies England!' He goes to say good- 
bye, and places five hundred dollars in his hand. 

Now he can go. One last trial, one last deliver- 
ance, and then the sea takes him on its bosom and 
bears him on his mission, whose history will be im- 
mortal, written in the glad memories of twice ten 
thousand souls, who at the Judgment Day will rise 
up to call him blessed. " They that be wise shall 
shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever 
and ever." 



CHAPTER XV. 

MOODY AND HIS CO-LABOURERS. 

ONE of Mr. Moody's most valuable qualities is his 
genius for finding out and employing those who 
are specially qualified to assist him in his work. In 
this respect his generalship is of a very high order. 
He gathered about him a class of active and devoted 
Christian workers, who were in constant training, and 
ready at a moment's notice, like himself, to go on 
errands for the Master ; and so acceptable were the 
labours of these lay evangelists, that they came to be 
in demand, to hold meetings in various parts of the 
city and in the country round. 

Some of the men who took their first lesson of Mr. 
Moody at Farwell Hall, followed his example, left all 
things for Christ, and devoted their lives to evange- 
listic work. Others, still retaining their position as 
men of business, began to give large portions of 
their time as Christian helpers ; their ample fortunes 
enabling them to enjoy the luxury of working for 
nothing, and paying their own expenses. 

Mr. Frank Rockwell, who, for a long time, was 
the efficient superintendent of the Young Men's Chris- 



ENLISTING A NEW RECRUIT. 209 

tian Association, gives this account of his capture by 
Mr. Moody :— 

" Twelve years ago, last December, I was a student 
in the Chicago Medical College. My health had 
failed from overwork, and I was going home to the 
country for a short vacation. On the evening before 
my intended departure, I went over to the little 
prayer-meeting, which Mr. Moody used to hold in 
an old shanty that had formerly been a saloon. I 
had never seen the man before ; but I was interested 
in his meeting, and took some part in it. At the 
close he came straight up to me and said, 'Young 
man, who are you ? ' I gave him my name, and told 
him something of my plans, upon which he appealed 
to me thus : ' Give up your medicine, and go in for 
saving souls, and you will bless God for it through all 
eternity ! ' 

" I was so much attracted by his hearty ways that, 
instead of going home, I went next morning to his 
office, in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian 
Association, which at that time was his only home. 
He immediately set me at work in the mission depart- 
ment, and afterwards gave me a share in the duties of 
the relief office, which he had organized a little while 
before. 

"He had discovered that the County Agent, whose 
business it was to look after the poor, did not relieve 
all needy persons ; and he also learned that the 
methods of relief prevented many worthy but modest 
people from pressing their claims for assistance. It 
occurred to him that if he could help these poor 
people to food, clothing, fuel, etc., they would be 

10 



210 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

more easily brought within the reach of the means 
of grace ; and, acting at once upon this idea, he 
established a system for comforting their bodies, 
as the first step toward saving their souls. He 
divided the whole city into districts, having reference 
to the location of the principal churches, and per- 
suaded each congregation to appoint visitors from 
among their own members, who should visit the 
several districts monthly, and make reports of their 
work at the rooms of the Association. On the requi- 
sition of these visitors, fuel, provisions, and clothing, 
were supplied. The work of keeping the treasury 
full for this purpose, Mr. Moody took upon him- 
self." 

Experience, and the opportunity for doing good, 
were the only wages these visitors received ; but their 
work was a blessing to their souls, as well as to the 
souls and bodies of the poor; and through them 
Mr. Moody gained such a thorough knowledge of 
the needs and sorrows of the city, that for a time 
he held in his single hand almost the whole of its 
charitable work of this description. The wisdom and 
efficiency of this system became so apparent that 
several small societies, which had been maintained 
by individual churches, were united with the relief 
society of the Young Men's Christian Association, 
under the name and charter of the Chicago Relief 
and Aid Society, of which Mr. O. C. Gibbs was the 
first superintendent. At the time of the Great Fire 
this society was the chief almoner of the world's 
overflowing charity. 

Captain Simms.— -Another man whom he initiated 



CAPTAIN SIMMS. 211 

into the order of lay evangelists, was Captain Simms> 
of the ship " Flying Mist." 

This young sailor first made the port of Chicago in 
the summer of i860. He was an avowed sceptic; 
believing that all religion was a delusion ; and that 
all professors of it were either hypocrites or fools. 
His favourite theory was that every man had within 
his own nature the power to be as good, or as bad, as 
he pleased. He was correct in his habits, eschewing 
tobacco, and liquors. It was his constant boast that 
nothing could ever tempt him to intemperance ; but, 
from drinking a glass of port wine and water, an 
irresistible appetite for strong drink seized upon him, 
and, in spite of all his self-righteousness, within two 
years he became a miserable drunkard. 

Several times he was on the verge of delirium tre- 
mens; and, with his constitution almost ruined, he 
was given over to die. As a last hope, his friend, 
Captain McMillen, in order to take him away from his 
drinking companions gave him the berth of mate on 
board his vessel. 

On this voyage, when his head was somewhat 
cleared, and his heart somewhat softened, the awful 
impression seized upon him that his boasted strength 
was a delusion, and that he was a man utterly lost, 
unless he could get help from heaven. Strangely 
enough, through all his dissipation he had clung to 
the doctrine of self-sufficiency, preaching it with 
every nerve trembling, and with brain confused with 
drink. But now the Spirit of the Lord had driven him 
from his refuge of lies, and, utterly broken-hearted, 
he gave himself up to God. 



212 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

From that hour the appetite for liquor died within 
him ! 

When his ship returned to Chicago he went at once 
to the strangers' meeting at Farwell Hall, where he 
confessed himself a seeker of religion. Within a week 
he was soundly and happily converted, and began to 
tell his old companions the story of his new hope in 
Christ. To get rid of his doubts, he began to search 
the Scripture, asking the Lord to show him the right 
meaning of the words he read. One after another 
the great truths of the Gospel were opened to his 
mind ; more especially the promises which encourage 
God's people to pray. His faith took such strong hold 
of these that he was able to put them in daily use, 
with respect to his temporal as well as spiritual needs. 
He seemed to be taken out of himself, and his life 
was "hid with Christ in God." 

One thing for which he prayed was that God would 
send him tidings from his old home in Scotland He 
had, at seven years of age, been brought by his father, 
a wild and reckless man, to America, who basely 
deserted him among perfect strangers. For seventeen 
years no word of his mother and his two sisters had 
ever reached him, though he had written to them again 
and again. 

One day, having written a letter to a friend in the 
West, he noticed, on reading it over, that it contained 
no personal matter, and might be sent to any one 
else with equal propriety. At the same time he 
felt impressed to send it to an acquaintance at the 
East ; which thing he did, having added these words : 
" Have you heard anything from my mother ? " In 



AN ANSWER TO PRAYER. 213 

a few days the answer came, enclosing a letter 
written by his mother eight years before ; asking 
what had become of her lost boy. He at once de- 
spatched a letter across the sea to this new address ; 
but, as he afterwards learned, the family had removed 
a second time ; and the letter would have shared the 
fate of all the others had it not been for a citizen of 
that place, who, seeing the letter advertised in the 
post-office, forwarded it to its true destination. 

In a few weeks his prayer was answered. A letter 
from his mother, with the picture of his two sisters, 
now grown to womanhood, came to strengthen his 
faith in God; and as no time was lost in bringing 
them to Chicago, where the mother, and the elder 
sister were soon brought to the Saviour, and where 
now the younger sister, who was in Christ before, is 
engaged in the Bible work which Mr. Moody or- 
ganized just before his last departure for England. 
Captain Simms sails the "Flying Mist" in the summer, 
and labours as an evangelist in Chicago during the 
winter. 

But the story is not yet all told. 

One night, while Mr. Moody and the Captain were 
going home together from some revival meeting, 
they paid a visit to the saloon from which the Captain 
had been taken by his friend McMillen. After some 
words of Christian counsel to the sailors who were 
lounging there, they climbed up the steps to the 
sidewalk again, and presently came upon Captain 
McMillen himself, who, with some of his old friends, 
was taking an evening stroll. 

Mr. Moody, on being introduced, immediately in- 



214 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

quired of the strangers if they loved the Lord, and 
finding them all unsaved, he said : 

" Well, boys, it is a bad thing to be without Christ. 
I may never have another chance to pray for you, so 
let us pray right here." And there at the street corner, 
at eleven o'clock at night, he knelt upon the pavement 
and prayed to God to save the captain and his 
friends. That prayer was speedily answered. Captain 
McMillen is now an active member of a Chicago 
church, and one of the boys who were with him is a 
worker in the Young Men's Christian Association. 

James Morrison. — Another trophy from the sea 
is Mr. James Morrison, who sails as carpenter in the 
summer and does the work of an evangelist in the 
winter. 

Two years ago last January, this wild young High- 
lander strayed into a place where Mr. Moody and 
Major Whittle were giving personal instruction to a 
number of inquirers, after the public exercises had 
closed. Setting four chairs together, Mr. Moody 
almost thrust him into one of them, seating the others 
beside him, and then said to his comrade: 

" Here, Major ; talk to these three fellows." 

Among other instructions given them was the direc- 
tion to read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah before 
they went to bed. When they went home, Morrison, 
being the only owner of a Bible among them, read 
the chapter, partly out of curiosity to see what it 
was, and partly because he felt grateful for the kind 
interest which had been shown by those brethren in 
trying to save their souls. 

Among his other employments, Morrison had been 



JAMES MORRISON. 215 

a dancing master. He was wild and wicked, and 
among the saloons and sailors' boarding houses he was 
regarded as a brilliant and dangerous man. After the 
Highland fashion, he carried a skean, or long knife in 
his stocking ; and his mates were afraid to quarrel with 
him, lest he should be the death of them with it. But 
by means of the little meeting, and the chapter out of 
the Bible, the whole current of his life was turned 
from sin and Satan unto God. Lying awake that 
night, he was impressed with the idea that two people 
were praying for him — Mr. Moody, and his old mother 
in Scotland. Then he said to himself, " I believe 
Christ is willing to save me if I could only get to 
Him; but where in the world am I to find Him?" 
And then these words came forcibly to his mind : " I 
that speak unto thee am He." 

The next morning he said to his room-mates, " I 
am a Christian." He then began to feel as if he 
would like to find some other Christian ; and starting, 
he presently met Captain Simms, to whom he told 
his new experience. That night he went to the 
meeting again, and, on being asked what was his 
state of mind, he answered again, " I am a Christian." 
Feeling it his duty, he next went to a house where he 
had lately drawn his skean and threatened the life of 
a man ; and there he began to preach Christ. From 
one saloon and dance-house to another he went, say- 
ing to his old companions in sin, " I am a Christian." 
And so he spent the winter. 

His Scotch training in the Bible and catechism was 
now of great use to him. He joined the Bible-class 
in Mr. Moody's Sunday-school, and began bringing 



216 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK 

his old friends with him. Every one who came was 
converted. When asked how it was that every one he 
brought was blessed, he answered, " I have been pray- 
ing to the Lord to make me a ' fisher of men.' " 

He is now in charge of the Young Men's Christian 
Association reading-room, in the great depot of the 
Rock Island and Michigan Southern railways, still 
pursuing his Bible work among the poorest of the 
poor. 

People are often " laid upon his heart/' as he says ; 
and to these he goes at once and asks them, " Are 
you saved ? " One of these strangers whom he felt 
laid upon his heart, and whom he led to Christ, was 
a poor fellow, whom he met in the street, looking 
as if he were hungry. " I can tell when a man is 
hungry by his looks," says he, " for I have some- 
times been very hungry myself." This young man 
proved to be the son of a Christian minister in 
Germany; but, his money being all gone, and his 
good clothes in the pawnshop, he had been turned out 
of his wretched boarding-house. He was ashamed to 
apply to his German society, and was almost desperate 
enough to end his own miserable life. 

Being at one time sorely discouraged and tempted 
to give up his work, he said to Mr. Moody, " I do not 
think I am of any use to the Lord." 

" It is a strange man for whom God has nothing to 
do," replied Mr. Moody. " I began work by bringing 
in children to the Mission Sunday-schools." 

" I can do that," said Morrison ; and, his hope and 
courage quickly returning, it was not long before he 
had a Mission Sunday-school of his own, after the 



A LIFE-LONG BELIEVER. 217 

manner of that in the North Market Hall. In its 
neighbourhood he is already acquainted with every 
family, and welcomed in almost every house. He 
says : " Mr. Moody had a wonderful acquaintance 
with the children, and with their parents also. I 
myself know as many as three hundred families, 
where I have been to find children for my school." 

This man seems to be doing Mr. Moody's work 
over again, in a neglected region on the south side ; 
for not only does he teach the children in the Sunday- 
school, but is becoming a sort of pastor also. In this 
work he finds much to cheer, and little to discourage 
him ; for the missionary system of the Young Men's 
Christian Association has leavened the whole lump 
of the city, and such a region as The Sands used to 
be is now nowhere to be found. 

Down in the dirtiest streets and in wretched hovels, 
he says, he sometimes finds a good friend of the Lord. 
In such a place, one day, he made the acquaintance 
of a poor old woman, who interested him greatly. 

" How old are you ? " he asked. 

" Seventy-five years old," was the reply. 

" Are you a believer ? " 

"Yes." 

" How long ? " 

" Seventy-five years." 

" What ! " 

"Yes. As early as I can remember, my mother 
told me that the Son of God came down into this 
world and died for me, and then went back to heaven, 
where He is waiting for me to come. And ever since 
then, I have been trying to go to Him." 



2i8 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

This missionary says: "It is just as easy for me to 
get some of those poor outcasts to believe in Christ, 
as for the pastors of our fashionable churches to get 
their people to do the same. They are just as near 
the kingdom as any one else, and my work is as 
hopeful as theirs." 

He was calling one day on the mother of one of his 
little Sunday-school girls, and made inquiries of her 
about her husband. 

" Ah ! " says the woman, " he is awful. Everything 
goes for tobacco and whisky, and sometimes we are 
half starved." 

Feeling this man " laid upon his heart," he sought 
his acquaintance, and presently bringing out his Bible, 
he began to read to him the third chapter of John, 
beginning with the fourteenth verse — which particular 
passage Morrison says he has " read almost out of the 
Book." Under his instruction the man found the way 
to the Cross, threw away his liquor and tobacco, 
though it cost him a desperate struggle ; and the last 
time he called upon the family, he found them neatly 
and pleasantly settled. 

The happy wife was delighted to see him, and could 
hardly express her joy. " He is so different now, 
that I hardly know him : no more whisky, no more 
tobacco. And now, Mr. Morrison, I have so much 
money, I don't know what to do with it." 

Thus was proved over again the wisdom of Mr. 
Moody's policy at the North Market Mission : — 
"Make these poor people Christians, and they will 
make gentlemen and ladies of themselves." 

Morrison meets all kinds of ignorance and super- 



CHARLES M. MORTON. 219 

stition ; but his method is the same with them all. 
He finds some passage of God's Word which exactly 
meets their case, and holds them to it till they come 
out into light and grace. To hardened sinners he 
preaches the law, and tells them kindly but earnestly 
that they are going straight to hell. If a man is a 
sceptic, he urges him to believe on the Son of God, 
and drives him from one corner to another with texts 
of Scripture till he forces him to take refuge in Christ. 
It is all by the power of God's Word. 

Down here among these low and ignorant people 
he finds the old wonders over again — visions, dreams, 
supernatural appearances, and the like. One wicked 
woman was scared out of her sins by seeing the devil 
standing, one night, at the foot of her bed : a very 
different result, no doubt, from what that Personage 
intended. 

This ex-dancing master speaks by authority when 
he says that club dancing is full of sin. He has been 
anxious for the souls of his old pupils in that fashion- 
able art, but only one of them has been converted ; the 
rest, he says, " are roaming yet." 

Charles M. Morton. — Among the men brought 
out and trained by Mr. Moody is Charles M. Morton, 
missionary at the Plymouth Bethel, connected with 
Mr. Beecher's church in Brooklyn. His was a very 
unpromising case, as will appear from this account he 
once gave of himself. He says : " I grew up without 
a knowledge of the Saviour, and scarcely knew or 
believed that there was a God. . . . When the War 
broke out, we shouldered our rifles and went to the 
front. Our lives then were wicked. I was a ring- 



220 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

leader in drinking and in gambling, and it used to be 
my boast that I could blaspheme the name of God 
in more ways than any other man about." 

Having lost his right arm, he left the army and 
went to Chicago, where he continued his life of sin 
till his money was all gone, and then applied to the 
Employment Bureau of the Young Men's Christian 
Association for work. Mr. Gibbs, who was then in 
charge, and to whom a soldier with an empty sleeve 
was always an object of tender interest, spoke to him 
about Christ ; and, having no chance of employment 
for a man with only one arm, he gave him a place as 
man-of-all-work about the Association rooms, which 
were then in the Methodist Church block ; and Mr. 
Rockwell, superintendent of the Mission work, gave 
him lodgings in his own room in the same building. 

Mr. R. gives the following account of his conver- 
sion : — 

"When Morton came to be my room-mate, he 
brought, along with his other small properties, a pouch 
of tobacco and a pipe ; and when I came home that 
evening I found him sitting with his chair tipped 
back, his heels on the window-sill, his hat stuck on 
the back of his head, smoking till all was blue. 
Taking up the Bible, I mentioned that I was in the 
habit of reading a chapter and offering prayer before 
I went to bed, and asked him if he had any objec- 
tions. 

" ' Objections ? no; none at all. You can pray as 
much as you like without disturbing me.' And, as 
far as I know, he did not stir from his place, or even 
stop his smoking while the reading and praying were 



CHARLES M. MORTON. 221 

going on. The next night he was in his old attitude, 
lost in smoke as usual; though, from the account 
he gave of himself afterward, I learned that this time 
he did take off his hat during the prayer, but must 
have put it on again very quickly, for I did not see the 
action. 

"Feeling a deep interest in his case, I presented 
him at the noon meeting for prayers, and this I con- 
tinued to do twenty-one days in succession. During 
this time he spoke with great freedom of his doubts 
concerning religion, saying it was only fit for foolish 
people, and declaring that Burns had written better 
things than any contained in the Bible. But, as I 
afterward learned, though he still concealed it all 
from me, he gradually became more attentive at 
prayers. On the third evening he stopped smoking ; 
on the fourth he took down his feet from the window- 
sill ; on the fifth he got down on one knee ; on the 
sixth on both knees : but every time he was up and 
in his old place before I reached the 'Amen/ so I did 
not see how fast he was coming on. 

'* On the evening of the twenty-first day we had a 
little prayer-meeting down in a Baptist church in De 
Koven Street, and there we prayed for Morton till the 
heavens seemed to bend. It was late when I reached 
home, and I found him in bed ; so I sat down beside 
him and said to him : 

" ■ Charley, we have been praying for you to-night.' 

"' Have you? I thank you, Frank,' said he, his 
voice choking with emotion ; and then he turned 
away and buried his face in the pillow. About 
midnight he arose, and went into the prayer-room 



222 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

adjoining, where, after an hour of mighty wrestling 
with God, he felt his sins forgiven ; and when he 
came back his infidelity had vanished, and he was a 
saved and happy man. 

"A little while before his acquaintance with the 
Young Men's Christian Association, he and a comrade 
named Stewart had been on a drinking bout together, 
trying who would drink the most liquor before being 
overcome by it. While Morton was seeking and find- 
ing the Saviour at the Association, Stewart was doing 
the same thing at the church, and the very next time 
they met after their great debauch together, each was 
surprised and overjoyed to find the other happy in 
the love of Christ." 

Mr. Moody, after his usual fashion, called out the 
young convert, and almost compelled him to take 
part in the Association prayer- meetings. The first 
time he was called on he was unable to utter a word, 
though he made a desperate effort to open his mouth 
in prayer. The next time he was able to talk with 
the Lord a in sentence or two. At length the real 
power and genius of the man began to appear ; and 
Mr. Moody, who was quick to notice such marks of 
promise, took him over to his Illinois Street Church, 
and made him a kind of assistant pastor. His duty 
was to visit from house to house, hold cottage prayer- 
meetings and street meetings, and to preach in the 
Illinois Street Church on Sunday evenings, while Mr. 
Moody was holding service at Farwell Hall. 

These two men used to attend a good many con- 
ventions together ; and Morton became, like his leader, 
a very effective platform speaker, drawing largely 



MAJOR WHITTLE. 223 

from his own strange experience, and exhorting with 
great earnestness and power. It was while attending 
the National Sunday School Convention at Newark, 
New Jersey, in April, 1869, that he attracted the 
attention of some of the Brooklyn brethren, who 
were on the look-out for a man to take charge of the 
Plymouth Bethel. They invited him to Brooklyn, 
tested his quality, and installed him in the place where 
he has ever since remained. He is now regarded as one 
of the most successful home missionaries in America. 

Major Whittle. — Another of Mr. Moody's com- 
rades, whom he was instrumental in leading into 
evangelistic work, is Major D. W. Whittle. 

For several years, though holding an important 
business position, he gave a good deal of time to 
religious conventions, Bible readings, and revival 
meetings in various parts of the city. In April 1874, 
he resigned his position as manager of the Elgin 
Watch Company, and a salary of five thousand 
dollars a year ; committed his fortunes wholly to the 
Lord, and commenced the life of an itinerant evan- 
gelist; thus fulfilling Mr. Moody's prophecy, who had 
for years insisted that he was a chosen instrument 
for the great work of God. The Major, who had 
made an honourable name as a soldier of his country, 
has come to higher honours as a soldier of Christ. 
The recent revival in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, 
was a mark of God's approval such as few men have 
ever received so early in their history as evangelists. 
Following the example of Mr. Moody, who had called 
the singing brother, Sankey, to his aid, Major Whittle 
joined company with Professor Bliss j and, by the 



224 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

invitation of twenty-four pastors of that city, they 
went down to Louisville together, in February 1875. 
People came to the meetings in crowds, until it 
became necessary to entreat those who already loved 
the Lord to stay away, in order that those who were 
seeking Him might have a place. 

When the public exercises were over, those who 
desired personal instruction and prayer were invited 
to remain ; and of these there were so many that the 
hall was marked off into twenty-four sections, each 
of which was put in charge of a pastor, who, with 
the help of his deacons and chief men, laboured and 
prayed with those who came into their division. At 
almost any hour an inquirer might find some helping 
hand holding open the door of the kingdom, and hear 
some loving voice earnestly persuading him to enter. 

People would often stop Major Whittle and Pro- 
fessor Bliss in the streets, and beg to know what they 
must do to be saved. Saloons and theatres lost their 
patronage, and failed to pay expenses. The chief 
newspaper of the city freely gave the use of its 
columns for extended notices of the meetings. 
Leaders of society, and fashionable belles, as well as 
people of the great world of the poor, were among 
the converts. The whole city was revolutionized ; 
and, from being the stronghold of those vices which 
flourish mostly in wealthy Southern society, it came 
to be a centre of spiritual life. Still later comes the 
news of a great revival under his labours at Memphis 
Tennessee. 

J. H. Cole. — Another of the Farwell Hall evange- 
lists, brought out by the Spirit and providence of God 




mr. Moody's new churcii, Chicago. 



J. H. COLE. 225 



through the influence and example of Mr. Moody, 
is Mr. J. H. Cole. He was saved from a life of dissi- 
pation ; and, being thoroughly in love with Christ and 
His work, was left by Mr. Moody in charge of the 
Farwell Hall meetings, at the time of his departure 
for England. The great revival in Barraboo, Wiscon- 
sin, during the last winter, was the special blessing 
of God upon his labours there. At their close, he 
was called to assist the brethren at Louisville. 

Early in the month of May, Mr. Cole rejoined his 
old friend in London, who first assigned him to the 
charge of the Young Mens' meetings in the tent near 
the Bow Road Hall, at the East end of London, of 
which further mention will be made in Part II. His 
next work was a series of Childrens' meetings, which 
reached an attendance of nearly five thousand. 

During the last month in London of the American 
Evangelists, while Messrs. Moody and Sankey were 
speaking and singing to the great congregations at 
Camberwell Hall, in the South quarter of the city, it 
was determined to hold a series of revival meetings in 
the Victoria Theatre, a second-class play-house, in one 
of the worst parts of London ; and, with some misgiv- 
ing on the part of Mr. Moody and his Evangelistic 
committee, but at the earnest advice of Mr. Farwell, 
who was then in London, Mr. Cole was placed in 
charge. Night after night the old theatre was filled 
with a crowd of people who had been accustomed to 
divide their spare time and money between the gin 
palaces and the cheap performances of this stage; 
attracted at first by the novelty of a religious service 
in a place which, by common consent, was given over 



226 D. L. MOODY AND HIS WORK. 

to the devil and his friends, and held afterwards by 
the evident power of God which attended the simple 
and tender preaching of His word. 

This brief success of Mr. Cole, taking into account 
the difficulties under which he laboured, was not less 
remarkable than that of Messrs. Moody and Sankey 
themselves ; and, in the absence of those brethren, 
would have attracted great attention. On being asked 
how he prepared his sermons, he replied, " I pray to 
God for them:" His method is, by necessity, a sim- 
ple and Scripture one, since he is not learned in any 
other book but the Bible, and his chief power consists 
in the fact that he has learned how to pray. 

For some time Mr. Moody had been desirous of 
leaving in London some permanent and practical me- 
morial of the great revival there, and the work of 
grace at the Victoria Theatre, under the labours of 
one of his pupils, led him to appeal to the liberality of 
certain brethren, with a view to purchasing the old 
theatre and refitting it as a religious head quarters, in 
which to hold free religious services on Sunday, and 
open meetings every night in the week; with appli- 
ances for all sorts of Christian work, — in short, a Lon- 
don edition of the Chicago Farwell Hall. The appeal 
was successful ; the place has been purchased for this 
purpose, and is to stand, in the midst of a moral waste 
such as seems naturally to surround a theatre, — to 
stand as a trophy and memorial of the tidal wave of 
salvation which swept over the British metropolis in 
the year of Grace eighteen hundred and seventy-five. 

Mr. Cole, as well as Mr. Moody, has been urged to 
remain in England, and go on with his work so auspi- 



OTHER WORKERS. 227 

ciously begun ; but thus far he has declined all such 
invitations, and after a series of meetings in Liverpool, 
is expected to return to America. 

Mr. J. V. Farwell and Mr. B. F. Jacobs, though 
still at the head of large business concerns, have, for 
the past few years, given large portions of their time 
to evangelistic labours, and there are many other 
gentlemen, and ladies too, who have learned the 
secret of entire devotion to God, and who are be- 
coming more and more useful in the church, and 
among the outcasts and the poor. 

Thus, from the consecration of this one man to the 
Lord, and the influence of his example and his suc- 
cess, a great system of lay work has been inaugu- 
rated in the North-west, which has, to a considerable 
extent, been repeated in other parts of Jthe Union. 

The Chicago band are not more able or influential 
than the lay helpers of other cities ; but the power 
of God seems to have accompanied their labours in a 
wonderful degree. 

Why is this ? 

Evidently because they have learned the secret of 
v*i g God's words rather than their own. 



PART II. 

MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT 
BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



PC 



c 




IRA DAVID SANKEY. 



229 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY HISTORY OF MR. SANKEY. 

IRA DAVID SANKEY was born in Edinburgh, 
in the State of Pennsylvania, in the year 1840. 
His father's family were originally from England ; 
his ancestors on his mother's side were from the 
north of Ireland. Both his parents were members 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; and he, with his 
four brothers and four sisters, was trained up for the 
Lord, to whom he was consecrated in his infancy. 
His father was an influential man in the State, being 
for a length of time a member of the lower, and 
afterwards of the upper house of the legislature of 
Pennsylvania, while his wealth and influence made 
him an exceedingly useful member of the Church, in 
which he was also leader and exhorter. When Ira 
was a lad of sixteen the family removed to New- 
castle, in the same State, where the father assumed 
the presidency of a bank, and the son entered an 
academy, where he completed his education. 

His first religious impressions were received from 
the instructions of an old Scotch farmer in the neigh- 
bourhood, who used to take him to the Sunday- 



230 MOODY AND SANPFY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

school when he was only six years of age. This 
humble man made a great impression upon the 
mind of the boy, on account of his sincerity and 
earnestness in the service of the Lord. 

The habits of his father's household were puri- 
tanical. All its requirements were severe : the boys 
were not even allowed to whistle on a Sunday ; but 
this influence seems to have been blessed to the 
children, who were early brought to the Saviour. 
Mr. David Sankey was often invited to attend 
religious meetings in the neighbourhood, to which 
he would sometimes take his son Ira, who thus 
became familiar with religious services of different 
kinds, in which, while yet a child, he rendered good 
service in singing. In the day-school and in the 
Sunday-school, at a very early age, his was a lead- 
ing voice. He was full of music, and sensitive to 
musical impressions. Tunes which he once heard 
he could sing again ; and before he was sixteen years 
of age he began to make tunes for himself. 

During a series of revival meetings held in King's 
Chapel, in Edinburgh, — which was the place of worship 
regularly attended by the family, — he was first brought 
under conviction of sin, and made to feel the neces- 
sity of saving faith in Christ. The first few nights 
he attended as a matter of course, sitting by the 
stove with the other boys, whispering, and enjoying 
himself, as boys sometimes will under such circum- 
stances, even in the house of God. But presently, 
an old steward of the church, who had taken a great 
interest in him, came and inquired if he would not 
go to the altar with other inquirers, and try to be- 



HE DECIDES FOR CHRIST. 231 

come a Christian. This he at first refused to do ; 
but, evening after evening, his old friend returned 
with the same earnest inquiry ; and at last he joined 
the large company of inquirers, and bowed at the 
altar in humble penitence of soul ; which, before many 
days, was followed by the joyful sense of pardon and 
acceptance with God. The reality and genuineness 
of this first experience of religion he never had 
occasion to question, though the great attention given 
to moods and feelings and the too great neglect of 
biblical instruction of inquirers, did afterwards give 
him some trouble. Upon one point, however, he was 
decided, and his experience was clear: namely, he 
gave himself completely and unreservedly to Christ ; 
and this matter being settled once for all, his sub- 
sequent experience of grace was like the shining 
light " which shineth more and more unto the perfect 
day." This was in his sixteenth year. 

At the close of the series of meetings, he, with a 
large number of others, was received into the church 
at Edinburgh, as a probationer; but before the six 
months' probation had expired, the family removed 
to Newcastle, in the same State, where he was re- 
ceived into full membership at the Jefferson Street 
Methodist Episcopal Church. Here also he became 
prominent in the service of song. When about twenty 
years of age, he was elected superintendent of the 
Sunday-school which at that time numbered about 
three hundred and fifty scholars. It was here that he 
commenced his solo singing, — singing the Gospel, as 
he is now accustomed to call it, — and which, from the 
first, proved a very great attraction. Largely on this 



232 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

account the school was filled to overflowing, not only 
with children, but with their parents, who came, not so 
much to study the Word of God as to listen to the 
songs and hymns, which Mr. Sankey sang himself 
with wonderful sweetness and impressiveness, and 
in which he led the school, until it became famous 
for its musical acquirements. 

About this time he was appointed to the leadership 
of a class in connection with his own church, which was 
composed of from sixty to eighty men and women, 
who came together one evening every week, to speak 
of their religious experience, and to receive instruc- 
tions from their leader in the way of holiness. The 
duties of this responsible office led him to ex- 
amine carefully the foundations of his own hope in 
Christ. He soon became impressed with the fact 
that he, like too many others, had been living by 
feeling rather than by the Word of God. He had 
been accustomed to measure his state of grace by 
what he heard related in class-meetings and prayer- 
meetings, rather than by the texts of Scripture 
which are given for the purpose of defining the 
true condition of a child of God. The care of 
this large number of persons seemed to him a 
weighty responsibility ; and in order that he might 
not lead them astray, he commenced the study of 
the Scriptures with more earnestness than ever, 
searching in them for the right instruction to be 
given to each individual member of his class, to 
suit their various requirements in trial and suffering 
and labour. In this work he was largely blessed. 
The class was conducted on strictly biblical pria* 



MR. SANKEY ENLISTS. 233 

ciples ; its members were rooted and grounded in 
love, resting not upon their own, or upon each other's 
experience, but upon the never-failing promises of 
the Word of God. 

He would say to the class, " Tell us your condition 
in Bible language. The Scriptures abound with ac- 
counts of religious feeling of all descriptions. There 
is no state of grace which may not be described by 
a text." And the members being thus instructed, were 
accustomed to search for their portraits in the Bible, 
and also to inquire what words of counsel or of 
comfort it contained for their especial use. 

No wonder that a class conducted on such prin- 
ciples should have been thoroughly established in 
the faith of the Gospel, and should have given a 
good account of itself in all kinds of religious work. 
During the winter of 1867 some active Christian 
young men came out from the city of Pitsburgh, 
Pennsylvania, to hold what they called a "Chris- 
tian Convention," in Newcastle, with a view to 
organizing a Young Men's Christian Association in 
that town. The Convention proved to be a success. 
An Association was organized, in which Mr. Sankey 
became an active worker, and of which he ultimately 
became president. 

In April 1861, President Lincoln called for an 
army of 75>°°o men, for the purpose of putting 
down the Rebellion in the South. A regiment was 
raised in Newcastle and the vicinity, and Mr. Sankey 
was one of the first who enlisted. The call was for 
three months' service. At the expiration of his 
term of enlistment, he returned to Newcastle, and 
11 



234 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

entered the civil service under his father, who had 
been appointed collector of the internal revenue for 
that district ; and in this capacity he remained until 
he resigned all connection with the business world 
to join Mr. Moody in Chicago. His abilities as a 
Christian singer made his services in great request 
throughout all that region of country; and he was 
accustomed to spend much time in attending con- 
ventions, mass meetings, and other public religious 
assemblies, to conduct the music of the congrega- 
tions, and to sing his admirable solos, which soon 
became very popular. Mr. Sankey's singing was a 
part of his religion. His talent in this direction was 
a special gift from God, and as such he cultivated 
it almost exclusively in the lines of sacred music. 

For years he felt deeply impressed that there was 
a power in song which the Church had failed to appre- 
ciate, or even to understand. It seemed to him that 
he had a special mission in this direction, and accord- 
ingly he entered into this department of Christian 
work with the same earnestness and devotion as 
he would have taken up the work of preaching the 
Gospel, if he had felt himself called thereto. No 
singing master, or conservatory of music, ever placed 
a professional stamp upon him. His style was 
acquired in the Sunday-school, in the regular ser- 
vices of the house of God, in camp-meetings and 
conventions, and in the closet upon his knees. He 
was accustomed to pray over his singing as a 
minister prays over his sermon ; and thus receiving 
the baptism of the Holy Ghost, he was able to go 
forth in the name of the Lord, singing psalms and 



MEETING OF MOODY AND SANKEY. 235 

hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in his 
heart unto God, and thereby leading thousands of 
others to understand, and join in, the service of praise 
as they never had done before. From first to last 
he was never a professional musician. All the ser- 
vices which he rendered were gratuitous. He asked 
nothing of men ; but the Lord has rewarded him 
according to his works. 

It was at the International Convention of the 
Young Men's Christian Association at Indianapolis, 
that he first met Mr. Moody; in connection with whom 
he was destined to such great success. During the 
Convention a prayer-meeting was appointed for seven 
o'clock in the morning, in the church adjoining the 
Academy of Music, where the Convention was held. 
The meeting was led by Mr. Moody. When Mr. 
Sankey entered he found the singing in the hands of a 
worthy old man, who was dragging through a long- 
metre hymn in slow and solemn style; worshipful 
enough, it may be, to those who are accustomed to 
that kind of singing, but inexpressively dull and heavy 
to a man like Mr. Sankey. The meeting dragged, 
like the singing. Everything was in long metre and 
slow time. No sooner had Mr. Sankey appeared, than 
some one, who knew his capacity, invited him to lead 
the singing for the remainder of the meeting ; and 
under his direction so great a change came over it, 
that what began with heaviness ended with delight. 
At the close some one introduced him to Mr. Moody, 
whose first salutation was, — 

" Where do you live ? " 

" In Newcastle, Pennsylvania," was the reply. 



236 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

" Are you married ? " 

"Yes." 

" How many children have you ? * 

" One." 

" I want you." 

"What for ?" 

"To help me in my work at Chicago." 

" I cannot leave my business," said Mr. Sankey. 

"You must," said Mr. Moody. "I have been 
looking for you for the last eight years. You must 
give up your business, and come to Chicago with me." 

Mr. Sankey replied that he would think and pray 
over the matter, and see what the Lord would 
direct. It seemed no small matter for him to 
resign his profitable situation, break up his home, go 
to a strange city, and unite his fortunes with a 
man of whom he knew so little, but whom he under- 
stood to be wholly given to the work of the Lord, 
and ready to go at a moment's notice anywhere in 
the world on a mission in His name. He talked the 
matter over with his wife, to whom this cross seemed, 
especially heavy. But at length, feeling that the 
invitation from Mr. Moody was a call from heaven, he 
determined to go to Chicago for a week at least, and 
labour with him, hoping the Lord would there more 
clearly indicate His will. Before the close of the 
Convention, they held one meeting together in the 
open air, in the streets of Indianapolis. Mr. Moody 
preached, and Mr. Sankey sang ; and the good results 
which followed seemed to indicate that the Lord 
would be pleased to have them join company, and 
work together. Their week in Chicago was so much 



THE GREAT FIRE AT CHICAGO. 237 

blessed, and their spirits clave to one another in such 
Christian love and fellowship, that Mr. Sankey deter- 
mined to break off all connection with the world, and 
to join this ardent brother who, he felt, was specially 
appointed of God to labour among the masses of 
people not generally reached by the ordinary means 
of grace. 

During this week they worked together in church, 
in Sunday-schools, in saloons and drinking dens, 
speaking and singing as occasion served ; and in all 
these various labours their souls were refreshed, 
and good was done. This was about six months 
before the Great Fire, which occurred in October 
1 87 1. That great calamity, which overwhelmed the 
whole of that portion of the city where Mr. Moody's 
mission had been located so deranged his plans, that 
he went for a tour to the Atlantic coast, and Mr. 
Sankey returned for a time to his family in Pennsyl- 
vania. But no sooner was the new tabernacle erected 
in the midst of the ruins, than the two brethren 
returned and commenced their work again together, 
taking up their lodgings in ante-rooms of the great 
rough building, and giving themselves, day and night, 
to comforting the bodies and trying to save the 
souls of the unfortunate people who thronged this 
place of refuge. 

The great revival which signalised this work in the 
chapel among the ruins, has already been recorded in 
these pages. During Mr. Moody's absence on his 
second visit to England, in the spring of 1872, Mr. 
Sankey "held the fort," and carried on the meetings. 
When his friend returned from attending the Mild- 



238 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

may Conference in London — which was one of the 
principal objects of his journey — he found Mr. Sankey 
deeply impressed with the same spirit which had 
taken hold of him, and under the influence of which 
his preaching henceforth became more strictly biblical. 
Mr. Sankey began to search for hymns which clearly 
set forth the doctrines of the Word of God ; and thus 
the Bible preaching was accompanied with Bible sing- 
ing, in a manner which at once attracted the earnest 
attention of many devout persons in Chicago and the 
region round about. For a year these two brethren 
pursued this line of labour. Many churches were 
visited by them, and the Lord honoured His Word 
and brought many sinners to Christ by the ministry 
both of the speaker and the singer. 

The solo singing was not new with the Chris- 
tians of Chicago. It had been introduced several 
years before by Mr. Phillips, of New York, and 
had been greatly admired and enjoyed, but had 
not been considered so much a means of grace 
and salvation as a method of pious enjoyment. 
When Mr. Sankey began to sing his songs with a 
view to the awakening and conversion of sinners, 
many good people were surprised ; some were 
shocked, and others openly opposed the innovation. 
However, it soon became evident that the Lord 
approved this method of bringing souls into His 
kingdom ; and presently all opposition to it ceased. 

After Mr. Moody's second visit to England, he 
seems to have contemplated returning to that country ; 
and having at length determined to go thither again, 
he said to Mr, Sankey — 



THEY DECIDE TO VISIT ENGLAND. 239 

" You have often proposed that we should go out 
evangelising together ; now go with me to England." 

At the same time Mr. Sankey was considering a 
proposal from Mr. Phillips to join him in a tour of 
" evenings of song " on the Pacific coast ; and he was in 
no small doubt and anxiety of mind which of these 
invitations to accept. On one occasion he stated the 
case to a friend, and asked his advice, which was given 
to the following purpose : " Don't go with Mr. Phillips. 
Two workers in the same line, and especially two 
singers, are certain not to agree. Go with Moody ; 
then you can do your work, and he can do his and 
there will be no occasion of conflict between you." 
It was at length decided that Moody and Sankey 
should go to England together; trusting wholly to 
the Lord to direct and support them, and sharing 
together whatever God by His providence should 
give them for the expenses of their journey and 
the reward of their labours. They were, as afore- 
time, to take no salaries or stipends in any form. 
They were to ask no collections. They were to 
engage in no business, but to devote themselves 
solely to the work of God, and to rely upon Him 
for all things requisite and necessary as well for the 
body as for the soul. 

On the 7th of June, 1872, Mr. Moody with his 
family, accompanied by Mr. Sankey, sailed from New 
York, and ten days after landed in Liverpool. 



240 



CHAPTER II. 

MAKING A BEGINNING.— YORK AND SUNDERLAND. 

"\"\ THY do you go to England again so soon?" 
V V said one of Mr. Moody's friends to him, a 
short time previous to his last voyage. 

" To win ten thousand souls to Christ," was the 
reply. 

It was with a hope of great things in his heart, that 
Mr. Moody started on his third expedition to Great 
Britain ; a hope which had been growing and strength- 
ening for a long time, and which had now come so 
fully to possess him that he already claimed this 
great success as his own. When he arrived in Liver- 
pool, on the 17th of June, 1873, he learned that two 
of his old friends, by whom he had been invited to 
England, had recently died : the Rev. Mr. Penny- 
father, rector of the Mildmay Park Church in London, 
and Mr. Cuthbert Bainbridge, an eminent Wesleyan 
layman and extensive merchant, in Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne. A third invitation, from Mr. George Bennett 
of York, the secretary of the Young Men's Christian 
Association in that town, was the one he intended to 
accept first in order ; but on telegraphing to that 



FIRST REVIVAL MEETING IN ENGLAND. 241 

gentleman, that he had arrived, and was ready to 
commence his meetings, he received the reply that 
everything was so cold and dead in York, that it 
would take at least month to prepare for the intended 
revival meetings. The despatch concluded by asking 
Mr. Moody to name a date at which he might be ex- 
pected. He immediately telegraphed back, " I will be 
in York to-night." At ten o'clock he reached the 
city, where no one, except his friend Bennett, had 
ever seen him, and very few had ever heard his name. 

The situation was, surely, not very encouraging ; 
but, after carefully looking it over, Mr. Moody declared 
that every man must make his own way, and that he 
was ready " to go in at once." Mr. Sankey, who had 
gone to Manchester, was telegraphed for, and the 
meetings opened immediately. The next morning 
applications were made to several ministers of the 
town for the use of their pulpits on the coming 
Sabbath ; and two Wesleyan, a Baptist, and a Congre- 
gationalist place of worship, were reluctantly placed 
at their disposal. 

The first of that long series of revival meetings 
which were destined to form an era in the history of 
England, Scotland, and Ireland, was held on Sunday 
morning, in one of the small rooms of the Young 
Men's Christian Association, at which eight persons 
only were in attendance. The other meetings, which 
they held on this first Sabbath, were much more en- 
couraging ; but during the week which followed, there 
seemed to be nobody to pray for them, and nobody to 
work with them. The congregations were small. 
The interest increased slowly. The preaching was 



242 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

chiefly to professors of religion, who, as Mr. Bennett 
puts it, " needed almost as much waking up as the 
famous Seven Sleepers themselves." 

Considered as a revival, this first week's work was a 
most lamentable failure ; but during the second week 
a better state of things appeared, and something in 
the nature of an awakening commenced among the 
congregation in one of the Wesleyan chapels. 

The inquiry meetings, which always followed each 
public service, were somewhat new and striking to 
the good people of York ; but they gradually grew in 
favour, as the number of inquirers at them increased : 
and throughout the two years' campaign, this peculiar 
exercise has been one of the great instruments of 
spiritual success. 

Mr. Moody's manner of expounding Scripture at 
once attracted great attention ; one of the first effects 
of his ministry was the awakening of believers to 
the earnest study of the Word of God. He directed 
them to bring their Bibles, when they came to the 
meetings ; taught them the best methods of Bible 
study : and here, as in many other cities, there sprang 
up such a demand for a certain edition of the Bible, 
with index and concordance, that the publishers were 
forced to increase their production, and still were 
unable to supply their orders without considerable 
delay. 

His expositions of Scripture were so plain, that 
people who went to church with no particular religious 
impressions were often brought under the influence of 
the truth. Even while he was speaking, and without 
waiting for the personal instructions of the inquiry 



A COOL RECEPTION. 243 

"» -^ ■ ■ — 

meeting, they would sometimes be enabled at once to 
take Christ as their Saviour : they would then go 
forth from the meetings, happy in the Lord, to invite 
their acquaintances to the same line of faith and 
.experience with themselves. 

The chief difficulty, however, in the way of their 
success, was the coldness with which Messrs. Moody 
and Sankey were received by the clergymen and minis- 
ters of the place. The common people heard them 
gladly; and if they had been encouraged by their 
spiritual guides, there seems to be no doubt but 
that a great revival, like the one enjoyed in Edin- 
burgh,, or Glasgow, or Liverpool, might have fol- 
lowed the labours of the evangelists here. Their 
subsequent success has quieted all doubts, and 
removed all opposition ; and now the frequent 
inquiry is, " Will they ever come back again ? " 

During the month of their stay in York, two 
hundred and fifty persons professed to find Christ. 
Many, who were already members of churches, were 
brought up into a higher spiritual life ; and it is 
believed that a large number of others, who made no 
profession, were greatly benefited by the services. 

The noonday prayer-meeting, which Mr. Moody 
inaugurated, is still kept up by the Young Men's 
Christian Association; and very much permanent good 
was undoubtedly done. 

Mr. Moody closed his work in York with an all- 
day meeting, which, from its novelty, as well as its 
efficiency, attracted great attention, and was most 
highly approved. First there was an hour for confes- 
sion and prayer; second, an hour for praise; third, 



244 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

a promise meeting, which consisted of testimonies, 
on the part of believers, to the fulfilment of pro- 
mises in their own experience ; fourth, a witness meet- 
ing, which was a succession of public confessions 
of Christ by young converts; fifth, a Bible lecture 
by Mr. Moody ; and finally, a communion service, 
conducted by Mr. Moody and four ministers who 
were present, in the Presbyterian fashion. 

The singing of Mr. Sankey was both a surprise 
and a pleasure in York. Such singing was never 
heard in that town before. His lodgings were in 
the very centre of business ; and sometimes, when 
he would sit down to his harmonium, and sing and 
play for the friends who were entertaining him, the 
street would be filled with a crowd of people, listen- 
ing with delight. One instance is related of a woman 
who was deeply convicted of sin while listening to 
one of these hymns in the street, and who, on asking 
and obtaining an interview with the singer, was 
led immediately to the Saviour. A great many in- 
stances of conversion, through the singing of Mr. 
Sankey, have been recorded ; but this seems to have 
been the first, as well as one of the most striking, of 
them all. 

Mr. Moody's meetings in York were chiefly held in 
chapels. He would not go to halls, and other public 
places, lest he should seem to be neglecting or oppos- 
ing the regularly established forms of worship. As 
always in his own country, so now in England, he 
greatly desired to work inside the Church of Christ, 
and not to establish any new system of his own. 

It was a sore trial to him to find the ministry, at 



SUNDERLAND. 245 



first, almost universally indifferent, or hostile, to him ; 
but he never departed from his original purpose, and 
ultimately, his faith and his firmness were signally 
honoured by the opening of churches and chapels 
of every order for his meetings, in the chief cities 
of the United Kingdom, and the opening of the 
hearts of their ministers and elders to receive not 
only his message, but himself. 

SUNDERLAND. 

The Rev. Arthur Rees, of Sunderland— a con- 
siderable city, on the eastern side of England — 
after attending some of Mr. Moody's meetings in 
York, determined to invite him to labour with his 
own congregation, at Bethesda Chapel ; and to this 
place came the American evangelists, and commenced 
their meetings on Sunday, the 27th of July. 

Mr. Rees is an open-communion Baptist ; holding 
certain other opinions of his own ; who has gathered 
about him a very large congregation of earnest Chris- 
tian people among whom there seems to have been 
a good deal of religious life. 

It required no small courage to bring Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey to Sunderland ; but Mr. Rees 
was fully equal to the occasion, and his judgment, 
as well as bravery, was abundantly justified by the 
revival which followed. In speaking of the coldness 
and opposition, on the part of the ministers of Sunder- 
land, one gentleman says : 

"Mr. Moody had one whole minister, three-fourths 
of one other, and nothing, or next to nothing, of all 
the rest to help him in his meetings." 



246 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

But their want of faith in this strange man was 
certainly not without excuse. His method of opera- 
tion was so different from anything they had ever 
seen in a religious way, that it is no wonder they 
failed to recognise in him a chosen prophet of the 
Lord. Besides, he came quite unheralded, except by 
the sharp criticisms which had preceded him from 
York ; and accounts of the revival there which con- 
tained more reference to its strangeness than to its 
spirituality and power. Mr. Moody was not a clergy- 
man, nor even a minister. No holy hands had ever 
been laid upon him ; his only consecration to the 
holy office was the one which he had made himself. 
His blunt ways, and evident want of culture, offended 
those nice persons who had always associated religion 
with everything that was elegant and orderly. 

From the first he drew large congregations of curious 
persons, who went to hear Moody and Sankey just as 
they would have gone to hear an actor, or a vocalist ; 
and it was from among this careless crowd that the 
first trophies of grace were won. Still the work 
dragged heavily. No one in all the town, except 
Mr. Rees, gave them the least official notice ; and it 
seemed likely, for want of the co-operation of influen- 
tial persons, that the movement would come to 
nothing. 

" We never can go on in this way," said Mr. 
Moody. " It is easier fighting the devil than fight- 
ing the ministers." 

After they had been in Sunderland some time, 
the Young Men's Christian Association sent a dele- 
gation to wait upon them at their lodgings ; and 



A REMARKABLE INTERVIEW. 247 

this is the account which one of them gives of the 
interview : — 

" They had already been a week in Sunderland ; 
but, as yet, I had not seen either of them. Ah! 
thought I, what a lift heavenward shall I get from 
these holy men ! We were shown into a back par- 
lour by the servant, and very soon the two evange- 
lists sauntered in in a style neither ecclesiastical nor 
dignified. Turning to me, Mr. Moody asked, in true 
Yankee fashion, What was our business with him ? 
He did not show us a seat ; he did not offer us his 
hand : altogether an auctioneer-like reception, 

" We represent the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation, Mr. Moody, and have come to ask if you will 
give us an address in Victoria Hall, on Sunday 
afternoon. 

" Preach for you ? Oh yes ! I'll preach for you, 
replied Mr. Moody. 

" We don't want you to preach for us ; we want 
you to preach for Christ. 

" Oh yes — yes ! All right ! I'll preach for you. 

" Our committee, continued I, hope you will not 
misunderstand the reason of their not joining you 
earlier in your work. It is not for want of sympathy; 
but because you came to us in a sectarian connection, 
and have allied yourself with Mr. Rees ; and if we 
were to join you, on sectarian grounds, we should 
injure our Institution, which has enemies enough 
already. 

" After explaining his position, and that his 
connection with Brother Rees and his congregation 
had no sectarian significance, he said, — 



248 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

" I go where I can do most good : that is what I 
am after. And when we left, he followed us out to 
the gate, saying, ' It is souls I want : it is souls I want/ 

" Alas ! I had mistaken the man ; and whether he 
spoke of souls or anything else, it is all the same to 
me now. 

"Well, Frank, what did you think of it? asked 
my companion, as we walked off from this strange 
interview. 

11 Think ! It is money : that is what it is, James. 

" However, I went to the meeting, being careful to 
keep out of sight ; but when Sankey began singing, 
I felt it draw me, and very little more of it would 
have pulled me on to the platform. 

" That was not a good afternoon for Mr. Moody. 
His eye blazed with mournful earnestness, as it ranged 
that crowd, looking for anxious faces ; and its strange 
light lives in my memory yet, while all my prejudices 
and misconceptions are dead and rotten. 

" On the following Sunday night, when I got to the 
rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, I 
found the meeting on fire. The young men were 
speaking with tongues, and prophesying. What on 
earth did it all mean ? Only that Moody had been 
addressing them that afternoon. * What manner of 
man is this ? ' thought I ; but still I did not give him 
my hand. . . Many of the clergy were so opposed 
to the movement that they turned their backs upon 
our poor innocent Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion, for the part we took in the work; but after- 
wards, when the floodgates of Divine grace were 
opened, Sunderland was taken by storm. 



A FRIEND IN NEED. 249 

" I cannot describe Moody's great meetings ; I can 
only say that the people of Sunderland warmly sup- 
ported the movement, in spite of their spiritual 
advisers ; that there was a tremendous work of grace, 
when measured by its immediate effects, but far greater 
in its consequences, after the evangelists were gone 
away. All honour to these two brother-soldiers of 
the cross, who, like Jonathan and his armour-bearer, 
stormed this fortress of British unbelief alone ! " 

In order to avoid all appearance of sectarianism, 
Mr. Moody removed the meetings to the Victoria 
Hall ; though on the Sabbath, and even during the 
week, extra and overflow meetings were conducted 
in a few of the Nonconformist chapels. 

It appears that the Wesleyan ministers of Sunder- 
land had special reason to hesitate about 7 joining Mr. 
Moody, on account of his Calvinistic theology ; of 
which, however, he brought out very little in any of 
his discourses, but which they scented in some of 
his exhortations and instructions to inquirers. But 
about this time, the president of the Wesleyan Con- 
ference, the Rev. William Morley Punshon, LL.D., 
came down from London to attend a special service ; 
and, having been well acquainted with Mr. Moody 
in Chicago, and knowing him to be thoroughly in 
earnest, and truly catholic in his spirit, he exhorted 
his brethren to give him their hands. This good 
counsel, from such high authority, was of much value 
to all concerned ; and some of the Wesleyan chapels 
were amongst those which were opened for the extra 
services. 

Still the work went on but slowly. Here and there 



250 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

a prominent minister openly opposed it, both by 
sermons and in the public press. It was so different 
from anything which had ever been seen in Sunder- 
land, that some of the clergy felt quite certain it must 
have come originally from the devil. With such 
earnestness and courage did Moody press the battle, 
that some of his best friends began to be alarmed ; 
even Mr. Rees himself, losing heart for a time, began 
to criticise the methods of work, and issued a little 
tract on " Religious Dissipation : a Word of Caution 
for Times of Revival," which he prefaced with this 
text, from Proverbs xxv. 16: — 

" Hast thou found honey ? Eat so much as is suffi- 
cient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and 
vomit it." 

Poor Mr. Moody! His soul was among lions. 
Even the sweet singing of Mr. Sankey could not calm 
all the disturbances which were raised by his vigorous 
discourses. Still he would not withhold a single word 
of the truth as he understood it, to please even the 
most eminent ministers or the most cautious laymen. 
God had given him his message, and he had nothing 
to do but deliver it. This he did, though oftentimes 
with a heavy heart, cheered by occasional conversions, 
and the satisfaction of doing his whole duty. 

One of the fly-sheets issued against him was called 
" Kindly Reflections upon the Present Religious 
Movement." It was divided into three sections: viz., 
First, "Good results," — of which five were mentioned; 
Second, "Questionable procedures in the movement," 
of which there were fifteen ; Third, " Probable evil 
results," which were set forth in such vast and 



«SOLO SINGING IS NOT WORSHIP? i^i 

gloomy proportions as to make many a thoughtful 
Christian " rejoice with trembling," if even they did 
not prevent his rejoicing at all. 

The chief difficulty in the minds of his critics, 
appeared to be, the too rapid progress of the revival 
among people of all sorts and conditions, and the too 
great freedom with which salvation was offered to 
whomsoever would have it. The preacher seemed to 
be throwing about the Gospel promiscuously into the 
crowds, with the chance that some would be hit by 
it, with the hope that some would be saved by it, but 
with the certainty that a great many would trample 
it under their feet. None of their attacks, however, 
troubled Mr. Moody, so long as plenty of sinners 
came to his inquiry-meetings to find out what they 
should do to be saved. 

The opponents also declared that " solo singing is 
not worship " \ but Mr. Sankey kept on singing his 
solos, to the edification of those who had no com- 
punctions of conscience concerning them. It was 
alleged that Mr. Moody used too much pressure, 
not only in trying to persuade sinners to repentance, 
but also in his efforts to drive Christians to work. 
Nevertheless the pressure was kept up ; and the 
month of meetings came to its conclusion with results 
which, if they were far from satisfactory, were also far 
from being complete : for months afterwards, when 
the news of the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
upon Newcastle, Edinburgh, and Glasgow, under the 
labours of these same brethren, poured in upon the 
astonished Sunderlanders, they began to say with 
themselves, "We have made a great mistake. We 



253 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

have cast away a blessing." And when delegations 
of young men from the North came down to hold 
more meetings among them, the whole city was 
moved ; wave after wave of revival power swept over 
the churches, bringing more souls to the Saviour in 
this overflow revival than all those who had been 
converted under the labours of Moody and Sankey 
themselves. 



253 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BREAKING OF THE CLOUD. — NEWCASTLE. 

AMONG the eminent ministers from neighbouring 
cities, who came to visit Mr. Moody's meetings 
in Sunderland, was the Rev. David Lowe, D.D., 
pastor of the John Knox Presbyterian Church at 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He arrived at the door of 
the place of meeting just as Mr. Moody was sending 
a large number of inquirers into a separate room for re- 
ligious conversation: who, on seeing and remembering 
the Doctor's face, saluted him thus : — " Here, Brother 
Lowe, go in and talk to all those inquirers. There 
are so many, you will have to make them into a 
little congregation, and talk to them altogether." 
Such an introduction to the revival was most fortu- 
nate for the Newcastle pastor; and, on further in- 
spection, he became so thoroughly satisfied with the 
genuineness of the work of grace, that he pressed 
Mr. Moody to come to him as soon as he should 
finish his work in Sunderland. To this, as to a call 
from God, Mr. Moody at once agreed ; and, a few 
days after, commenced his labours at Newcastle, 



254 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

having spent a few days at Jarrow on the way. 
Among the friends that greeted him here were 
Mr. Thomas Bainbridge, (a brother of Mr. Moody's 
old friend), and Mr. Richard Hoyle, a gentleman 
who divides his time about equally between his 
place of business and his large and flourishing 
Mission at the Music Hall. 

At Newcastle Mr. Moody set himself down before 
Great Britain, with the deliberate determination of 
conquering its prejudices against himself, and break- 
ing his way into the confidence of its people, in order 
to bring to them the message which he bore from God. 

"We have not done much in York and Sunder- 
land," said he, " because the ministers opposed us ; 
but we are going to stay in Newcastle till we make 
an impression, and live down the prejudices of good 
people who do not understand us." 

During the first week, five of the principal chapels 
of the town were placed at his disposal, and meetings 
were held in them alternately; but, at length, Mr. 
Moody settled himself at the Rye Hill Baptist 
Chapel, which was a very large edifice with a 
very small congregation. At first the audiences were 
not large, but in a fortnight the great audience-room 
was filled to overflowing. Then crowds were turned 
away for want of room ; and during the last few days 
the desire to attend the meetings of Messrs. Moody 
and Sankey became so general and so intense, that 
one of the brethren declared he was actually glad 
when they went away, because the immense crowds 
which could not find admission to their services were 
sometimes almost riotous from disappointment. 



THE MOVEMENT SPREADING. 255 

One after another, the leading ministers joined 
hands with the evangelists, greatly to Mr. Moody's 
delight. "I am always glad to see a minister come 
to our meetings," said he ; " for he alwa3^s brings a 
large reinforcement with him." Some of the clergy 
of the Established Church also gave their sympathy 
to the movement ; and long before the close of these 
remarkable services, the outpouring of the Spirit of 
God upon the entire population of the place proved 
that the Lord had honoured the faith of His servant. 

An impression, indeed, had been made so deep and 
overwhelming, that it will enter into the history of the 
religious life of the present century, and so far-reaching 
in its influence, that no thought can measure its 
breadth of blessing. Not only at Newcastle, but in 
all the towns and villages over a radius of fifteen or 
twenty miles, the revival flame was kindled. The 
committee who managed the meetings held a busi- 
ness session every Friday morning, at which they 
were oppressed with delegations from all quarters, 
asking that brethren might be sent by Mr. Moody to 
hold meetings in their neighbourhood ; and presently, 
the number of assistants having been greatly multi- 
plied, hundreds of those outside meetings were held, 
and almost invariably they were marked with wonder- 
ful religious power. 

A minister from the hills of Northumberland came 
to them with the Macedonian cry, " Come over and 
help us." He did not ask them to send a minister, 
or even a lay preacher ; but if they would only send 
some person who could tell them the story of the 
Newcastle revival, he felt sure the Spirit of God 



2S6 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

would attend even such a simple message. They 
promised that a man should be sent ; and the pastor 
went back to his home among the hills, to publish 
the news far and wide that some one was coming 
from Newcastle to tell them about the revival. 
When the appointed time arrived, an immense con- 
gregation had come together to listen to the glad 
tidings ; but by some delay or accident the speaker 
did not come. There was nothing for it, then, but 
that the minister should try to tell the story himself, 
though he had only paid one short visit to the place ; 
but even this scanty information was so thrilling and 
effective, that it produced a deep impression, and a 
powerful work of grace immediately broke out, which 
swept through all that region of country. 

During the progress of the revival, Mr. Moody 
became oppressed with the thought that the meet- 
ings were too much made up of people who were 
Christians already, to the exclusion of great numbers 
who were earnestly seeking the truth. On this 
account he began to divide his congregations into 
classes, giving tickets to the different meetings which 
were held for them, and thus reaching many persons 
who otherwise would have been unable to profit by 
his ministry. Two notable meetings for merchants 
were held in the Assembly Hall, the fashionable place 
for holding balls and grand public ceremonies. Meet- 
ings for mechanics were held at the Tyne Theatre ; 
and since no place was ever large enough to hold the 
congregations which came together, three or four over- 
flow meetings were usually in progress, at such places 
as could be obtained in the neighbourhood. 



THE INQUIRY MEETINGS. 257 

By an admirable system which the committee 
adopted, the name and residence of every inquirer 
was made a matter of record ; and lest the instruc- 
tions given them in the inquiry meetings should not be 
always of a suitable character, tickets were issued to 
ministers, and other intelligent and experienced per- 
sons, by which they were admitted to assist at these 
exercises. The inquiry rooms were as crowded as 
the churches. 

The first converts were from among the educated 
classes of society. It seemed as if God were honour- 
ing the religious training which these persons had 
received, and by means of it, as well as of the burn- 
ing words of the preacher, were bringing them to a 
saving knowledge of the truth. Afterwards the work 
became more general ; but the great majority of those 
who professed to have been converted were those 
who had known the Scriptures from infancy, and had 
been regular attendants at the house of God. 

Now the hearts of the evangelists were made glad. 
Mr. Moody preached more heartily than ever : Mr. 
Sankey sang daily with new joy and enthusiasm. 
Their spiritual condition seemed to rise on the rising 
wave of the revival, and all who were associated with 
them felt themselves to be rapidly growing in grace, 
as well as in the knowledge of the truth. 

Mr. Moody's method of explaining the Scriptures 
was greatly enjoyed. He would throw a text at a 
sinner, who would seem to see it blazing as it came. 
He poured out the oil of joy and consolation upon 
anxious and sorrowful hearts, in a way that sug- 
gested the Good Samaritan Himself; and in his con- 
12 



258 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

versations with anxious persons he seemed to have 
come again into possession of the power he used to 
have in working for the dying on the battle-fields ; — 
a strange, secret familiarity with heaven and heavenly 
things, which he was in some measure able to convey 
to those whom he was instructing. Thus sudden 
conversions began to multiply. 

To those who had always been accustomed to see 
the work of grace going on gradually in the souls of 
inquirers, these sudden conversions were something 
of a stumbling-block ; but Mr. Moody, as usual, when 
any question was raised, fell back upon the Word 
of God. He searched the Scriptures for records and 
examples, and astonished his cautious brethren by 
pointing out the fact that the great majority of Bible 
conversions were of this same sudden type. 

The noon prayer-meeting, which was an important 
element in the revival, had been commenced pre- 
vious to his coming, by way of preparation. The 
room in which it was first held being over-crowded, 
it was removed to the Music Hall, which was capable 
of holding a thousand people. This place was 
usually filled ; though Newcastle is so busy a 
town that, under ordinary circumstances, a noon 
prayer-meeting could hardly be maintained at all. 
In the afternoons Mr. Moody gave a series of those 
Bible readings for which he has become so famous ; 
and many merchants and professional men, though 
overwhelmed with the cares of business, arranged their 
day's work with a view to enjoying them. The very 
best people in the city came in crowds, at four o'clock 
in the afternoon, to hear Mr. Moody read and explain 



"GO THOU AND DO LIKEWISE? 259 

the Word of God ; and of all his services those Bible 
readings are most pleasantly and profitably remembered. 

During the last week the meetings were held in the 
Brunswick Wesleyan Chapel, where wonders of grace 
were wrought. It was here that the famous Jubilee 
Singers appeared ; and their simple, spiritual songs 
added a new charm to the services, which were 
already overflowing with sweetness and joy. Minis- 
ters of all denominations vied with each other in 
helpfulness. Even the Established clergy felt their 
hearts warming towards this irregular brother from 
across the sea ; and some of them not only attended 
the meetings, but went away and held similar ones 
for their own congregations. An instance of this, 

it is said, was reported to the Bishop of 

by a clergyman whose heart had remained cold 
through all those fires. It was evidently done for the 
purpose of bringing down the Episcopal cudgel on 
the offender's head ; but, greatly to his amazement, 
he received, in response to his accusation, this laconic 
answer : " Go thou and do likewise." 

The Scriptural method of dealing with inquirers 
is well illustrated in the case of a middle-aged man 
who rose in the noon meeting, trembling with emo- 
tion, and said, " I am a lost sinner, and want you to 
pray for me." He afterwards came to Dr. Lowe for 
personal instruction, saying he felt his soul in fetters, 
so that he could not come to Christ. 

" Come to Christ, fetters and all," was the Doctor's 
reply. 

" Yes," said the poor man ; " but Satan is very hard 
on me. He seems to be throwing dust in my eyes." 



26o MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

"Never mind your eyes ; but come to Christ." 

" I stick fast," said the penitent man ; " I cannot 
get off." 

Upon this, the Doctor was somewhat at a loss to 
know what to do ; but, after a few words of prayer, 
he opened the Bible at the fifth chapter of John, and 
said to the inquirer, " What you want is to believe in 
Christ, is it not ? " 

" Yes," answered he, " I need to believe in Christ ; 
but I cannot see how I am to do it." 

"Listen, now, while I read," said the Doctor. 
"'After this there was a feast of the Jews, and 
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.' Do you believe 
that?" 

" Oh yes ; that is in the Bible : of course I 
believe that." 

" ' Now there is at Jerusalem, by the sheep-market, 
a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda.' 
Do you believe that pool was there ? " 

" No doubt of it," said the inquirer. 

" ' In this lay a great multitude of impotent folk.' 
Do you believe these impotent folk were really 
there?" 

" Certainly." 

" ' Blind, halt, and withered/ Do you believe they 
were blind and halt and withered ? " 

"Oh yes." 

"Well, do you not think you are very much like 
these folk, lying there by the pool, and waiting for 
the angel to come down and trouble the water ? " 

" Yes," said the poor man ; " that seems to be very 
much my case." 



THE BIBLICAL METHOD. 261 

" You are impotent ? " 

" Yes ; I cannot help myself a bit." 

" You are blind ? You just now said the devil 
was throwing dust in your eyes." 

"True." 

" And you have had this infirmity as long as thirty- 
and-eight years, have you not ? " 

"Yes ; just about that/' said the inquirer. 

"Now hear what Jesus said: — 'And when Jesus 
saw him iying, and knew that he had now been a 
long time in that case, He said unto him, Wilt thou 
be made whole ? ' Now, my friend, that is just what 
Christ is saying to you: 'Wilt thou be made whole?'" 

Quick as lightning, the truth flashed in upon the 
poor man's mind. He sprang to his feet, shout- 
ing, "I am free! Where is Mr. Moody?" And 
away he rushed to find him ; threw his arms about 
him, nearly carrying him off his feet; seized both 
his hands and shook them joyfully, exclaiming, "I 
am free ! I am free ! " 

Afterwards, in the meetings, he gave this testi- 
mony : — " I am a new man. When I used to be in 
any trouble I would try to drown my sorrow in 
drink ; but now, if anything goes wrong with me, I 
go to my closet and pray." 

In his meetings at Newcastle, Mr. Moody dealt 
little in law: he felt that the people wanted to be 
saved ; therefore he told them how. It did not seem 
necessary to threaten them, but rather to point out 
God's great desire to bless them. 

At the close of the meeting one night, two people 
were left kneeling in prayer after all the rest of the 



262 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

congregation had retired : one of these was a broken- 
hearted penitent, and the other a Christian friend 
who was trying to help him to the cross. The poor 
fellow seemed like a drowning man. He felt him- 
self to be sinking, and dared not leave the place of 
prayer, for fear he might lose his soul. Mr. Moody 
and three or four friends gathered round him in a 
circle, in the dark hall, (the gas had all been 
turned off except one faint burner) ; and there they 
prayed in turn, one after another, for the poor man 
who knelt in the centre of the circle, trembling like 
a condemned criminal. After they had prayed once 
round, no one dared to speak ; but, at length, one of 
them commenced to quote the promises of God's 
Word. Text after text he recited, until he came to 
this one: "I have no pleasure in the death of the 
wicked ; but rather that he turn from the error of 
his way and live." Then he asked the inquirer this 
question : " Will you yield to be saved ? " 

" I will," said the poor fellow, reaching out his hand 
in the dark, and giving his questioner a tremendous 
grip : who then took him in his arms, and lifted him 
gently to his feet, quoting, at the same time, these 
words : " And this is the will of Him that sent me, 
that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on 
Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him 
up at the last day." 

This strictly Biblical method of dealing with in- 
quirers, as may be supposed, resulted in thorough 
and intelligent conversions. 

One Methodist brother, in speaking of the meetings, 
said, " We have had revivals before ; and we were not 



ALL-DAY MEETINGS. 263 

much the better for them. But this revival is sub- 
stantial, for it is along the track of God's own Word." 

Of Mr. Moody Dr. Lowe says : " I find him not 
at all devoted to himself, but wholly devoted to his 
work. He is modest ; ready to take a hint from any 
one ; ready to let every man do his own work : and 
all the time full of anxiety to save somebody. I 
never knew a man whom I could splice on to as I can 
on to Mr. Moody." 

More than one minister of the Gospel, who found 
himself without a satisfactory experience, gave him- 
self to Christ anew, and came into a joyful sense 
of pardon and acceptance. Professed Christians, who 
had been members of churches for many years, and 
who had only a kind of doctrinal faith in the Saviour, 
and were without any of the "comfort of the 
Holy Ghost," came out into the light ; while in the 
very lowest stratum of humanity, lost souls were 
searched for, and found and brought up out of their 
degradation and wickedness, into the high and holy 
fellowship of God's own people. 

Two all- day meetings were held at Newcastle ; one 
of them, a convention for Christian workers, at 
which all the North of England was represented. 
About twelve hundred persons were present, the 
most of whom were ministers and official members of 
churches. The exercises were novel, interesting, and 
powerful. Amongst others was a service of praise, led 
by Mr. Sankey. This was somewhat different from 
what had been anticipated ; for, instead of singing his 
sweet songs for an hour, he laid before the congregation, 
in wise and aptly-chosen passages of Scripture, the duty 



264 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

and privilege of praising God. Mr. Moorhouse spoke 
on SEPARATION. The last hour was occupied by Mr. 
Moody in a most delightful address on HEAVEN. 

One result of the visit of Messrs. Moody and 
Sankey to Newcastle is thus forcibly expressed by 
one of the brethren there : — 

" Nothing is so remarkable in this revival as the 
utter demolishing of the old-fashioned prayer-meeting. 
Enter solemn minister and solemn people, scattered — 
six, — eight, — ten — over a great area. A long slow 
hymn. Long portion of the Word. Two elders pray 
two long prayers, in which they go from Jerusalem, 
and round about unto Illyricum, and a great deal 
farther. 

" Now we have crammed meetings. All sit close 
together. The singing is lively — new songs, new 
tunes. A few words from the minister give the key- 
note. Prayers are short. A few texts from the Word 
of God are frequently interspersed. Brief exhorta- 
tions. . . . All this comes from our brethren from 
America. Why have we not found out how to con- 
duct a prayer-meeting before ? We in this country 
have been bound hand and foot by traditions. In the 
far West of America, at Chicago, for instance, there 
were no traditions. The only people that had tra- 
ditions there, were the Indians. The brethren have 
thoroughly solved this question of prayer-meetings 
for us. We thank them." 

To reckon up the results of this month of revival in 
Newcastle, would be as difficult a task as to estimate 
the blessings of a month of summer sunshine. To 
say that converts were received into all the evangelical 



"GOD TS RICH? 265 



churches by hundreds ; that the whole of the North 
of England was reached, and roused, by scores of 
Christian workers, who were trained in this short 
course of instruction, and sent out to tell the story 
of the cross; that the ministers preached better, 
and the members prayed better; that Bibles were 
often in the hands of people who had read them but 
little before ; that the Sunday-schools blossomed 
out into real gardens of the Lord; that pastors 
ceased to look at each other out of the corners of 
their eyes, but grasped each other's hands in cordial 
fellowship ; and that the tidings of this outpouring 
of the Holy Spirit upon Newcastle and vicinity were 
published by the press, and sent by letter and telegraph 
all over Great Britain, as the most remarkable current 
news ; — to say this, is only to draw the outline of the 
heavenly picture. God was with His servants : and 
so bountifully did He pour down blessings upon them 
and their labours, that Mr. Moody might have thought 
again of what he said to his old employer, when he 
first struck out as an evangelist ; — " God is rich, and 
I am working for Him." 
w* 



266 



CHAPTER IV. 

MOODY AND SANKEY IN SCOTLAND. 

ON Saturday, the 21st of November, 1873, a f ter 
brief, though successful periods of labour at 
Carlisle, Bishop Auckland, Darlington, Shields, etc., 
Messrs. Moody and Sankey arrived in Edinburgh. 

The record of the work of these brethren in Scot- 
land is a history of one long-continued miracle of 
grace. Except God had been with them, they could 
have done nothing. All the circumstances were 
against them ; and the men themselves were, appa- 
rently, most of all in the way of their own work. 

The Scottish people are eminent for their knowledge 
of theology. Doctrinal discussions are as natural to 
them as kites and marbles to boys, or dolls and 
ribbons to girls ; and the various dissensions, disturb- 
ances, and divisions which have taken place among 
them on account of theological opinions, form a 
voluminous and remarkable history. He who would 
edify a congregation of Scotchmen must come to them 
with the beaten oil of the sanctuary ; and pour it 
out from vessels of a proper and traditional form. He 
should be a man of high attainments in learning; 
the stamp of some college should be upon him ; and 



DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. 267 



more than all, he should come with the endorsement 
of some eminent body of divines. All these things 
were wanting in Mr. Moody. If there were any great 
preacher in all the world who was likely to be rejected 
in Scotland, aside from the power of God which at- 
tended him, D. L. Moody was that man. 

To increase the difficulty, his companion, Mr. 
Sankey did not sing according to the Scottish tradition. 
In the first place, he sang but few of the psalms at 
all ; and those he did sing were not in the accepted 
versions. Much of his music was in a form which 
unpleasantly suggested the performances in places 
less religious than churches and chapels. But the 
chief abomination of all was the " kist fu' o' whistles," 
with which he accompanied his voice ; and which, 
by universal consent, had been kept out of Scottish 
sanctuaries for more than three hundred years. 

But the tidings of the glorious revival in Newcastle 
had awakened a deep interest in the minds of many 
ministers in all parts of Scotland, and especially in 
Edinburgh, that great centre of religious thought and 
life. There were devout men and women, who for 
several years had been, like good old Simeon, " wait- 
ing for the consolation of Israel." They had been 
praying that God would visit His people in Scotland 
with some such outpourings of His Spirit as had 
been recorded in their earlier history: and when 
they heard that these strangers were so wonderfully 
blessed in converting their English neighbours, they 
began, in spite of all their prejudices, to say, u May 
not God bless Scotland, as well as England, by means 
of these evangelists from America ? " 



268 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

It was under such impressions as these that the 
Rev. John Kelman, of Free St. John's Church, Leith, 
was induced to visit Newcastle, and examine this new 
wonder for himself; and so fully convinced was he 
that God was with these men, that, on his return, he 
spread the good tidings among his brethren in the 
ministry, and suggested that Messrs. Moody and 
Sankey be invited to Edinburgh. 

At about the same time the Rev. J. H. Wilson, of 
the Barclay Church, Edinburgh, became deeply inter- 
ested in the work of revival in the North of England, 
through accounts which he had received from some 
of his leading members, who had visited Sunderland 
while Moody and Sankey were there ; and had desired 
their pastor to invite them to his church. 

From these two ministers, the one in person, and 
the other by letter, Mr. Moody received invitations to 
hold some meetings in the capital of Scotland. These 
he accepted, though with some misgivings ; saying to 
himself, " What can such a man as I do up there 
amongst those great Scotch divines ? " But feeling 
sure that God was able with a worm "to thrash a 
mountain," he set his face northward, and late in 
November commenced that wonderful series of 
meetings in the Free Church Assembly Hall. 

So great was the interest in the approaching 
revival services, that a daily prayer-meeting was 
appointed at three o'clock in the afternoon, to implore 
the descent of the Holy Spirit. These meetings were 
a prophecy of the glorious work which followed. 
They were commenced in Craigie Hall, which place 
soon became overcrowded, and they were transferred 



EDINBURGH. 269 



to the Upper Queen Street Hall, and finally, to the 
Assembly Hall, where they daily increased in num- 
bers and power. 

On Saturday, the 23rd of November, the Music Hall, 
where the opening services were held, was densely 
crowded, to hear Mr. Moody preach the Gospel and 
Mr. Sankey sing the Gospel, according to the quaint 
announcements which had been posted over the town. 

Mr. Moody was unwell, and the Rev. Mr. Wilson 
was forced to take his place as speaker; while Mr. 
Sankey conducted the singing in a very attractive and 
impressive manner. On the next evening something 
went wrong with Mr. Sankey's organ, so he was 
not able to appear ; and Mr. Moody conducted the 
services without him. Both these meetings, however, 
were wonderfully blessed ; and the alternate absence of 
the two leaders was set down by the devout brethren 
as a providential showing that the power and blessing 
were of God, and not of men. 

From the first, no place in Edinburgh could con- 
tain the congregations which pressed to hear this 
speaker and singer. Three or four of the largest 
halls and churches were constantly in requisition, 
and even then it was necessary to attend an hour 
or two before the time appointed, in order to be sure 
of admittance. 

" One of the first things which impressed us," says 
Mr. Kelman, "was the extraordinary voracity of Mr. 
Moody's faith. We had been accustomed to go to 
the meetings, hoping God would bless us. But Mr. 
Moody always said, ' We know He will bless us ' ; 
and so well assured was he that God delighted to 



270 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN.' 

give large things in answer to prayer, that he was 
continually asking for blessings which were out of 
all proportion to our faith. But the blessings would 
come ; sometimes so largely, that we did not know 
what to do with them. We were often absolutely 
overwhelmed with the power and glory of God." 

At one meeting, composed of sixty-six young men, 
who were inquiring what they must do to be saved, 
sixty of them were blessed before they left the place. 

Mr. Moody's use of the Bible was greatly enjoyed by 
his brethren in Edinburgh. They also were mighty 
in the Scriptures ; and their people had been dili- 
gently instructed in the Word of God. The texts of 
Holy Writ which were stored away in their memories 
seemed like the bones in the prophet's vision, wait- 
ing for some one appointed of God to come and 
breathe upon them. This Mr. Moody did ; and 
straightway, in thousands and thousands of minds, 
the bones began to come together, "bone to his 
bone." The whole system of salvation rose up 
before their consciences. It seemed as if the sacri- 
fice on these Scottish altars had been ready and 
waiting for the fire ; and when this man of God 
began to preach and pray, the fire of the Lord came 
down. There were multitudes of souls that were 
like ships, waiting outside the bar for the flood- 
tide to carry them into the harbour; and now the 
great tidal wave had reached them, and was sweeping 
them into the Church. 

The religious interest soon spread, not only through 
Edinburgh and Leith, but throughout the whole of 
Scotland. The Evangelistic Committee, which was 



JOY IN EVERY HOUSE. 271 

raised for the management of the services, was here, 
as at Newcastle, pressed to send messengers bearing 
the glad tidings to distant towns and villages. The 
whole population were talking of Mr. Moody and his 
preaching, and of Mr. Sankey and his singing. The 
newspapers were filled with reports of their meetings. 
The London press began to take great notice of the 
movement ; and before many weeks the news of 
this wonderful revival formed a part of the cable- 
telegraph despatches. 

In thousands of Christian households, the deepest 
interest was felt by parents for their children, and by 
masters and mistresses for their servants ; and so 
universal was this, that Dr. Horatius Bonar declares 
his belief "that there was scarcely a Christian house- 
hold in all Edinburgh, in which there were not one or 
more persons converted during this revival." 

Such a statement, on such authority, is perhaps the 
best suggestion of the blessedness of this work of grace. 
It was the reverse of the last great plague of Egypt. 
There was scarcely a house in which some dead soul 
had not been brought to life ; and the wave of joy 
that swept through that community, so marvellously 
favoured of God, made it seem, more like heaven than 
earth. 

Tickets were issued by the committee of manage- 
ment to those who desired to labour in the inquiry 
meetings ; but presently it was found that improper 
persons, more blessed with zeal than knowledge, were 
offering their services in this department : a new 
system was then established, by which it was necessary, 
in order to obtain a worker's ticket, for the applicants 



272 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

to pass a strict examination before the committee, as 
to their qualifications for this work. Thus all false 
doctrine was carefully barred out ; and the converts, 
already familiar with the Word of God, came into the 
enjoyment of faith and liberty in such spirit and force, 
that many of them were able, at once, to join the host 
of home missionaries, and go into the regions round 
about, to tell the story of their own conversion, and 
to lead their friends to Christ. 

The brethren had now proved themselves workmen 
needing not to be ashamed, "rightly dividing the word 
of truth." Large numbers of the most eminent minis- 
ters and professors in the churches and colleges of 
Edinburgh joined hands with the evangelists, and 
rejoiced in their success. But so great a benediction 
could not pass without attracting the spiteful notice 
of the powers below. Satan seemed to be alarmed, 
lest he should be driven bodily out of the Scottish 
capital ; and accordingly stirred up two different kinds 
of opposition, — the one from an insignificant source, 
attacking Mr. Moody's personal character, and the 
other from the highest circles, denouncing the cha- 
racter of the work. 

While the revival was sweeping onward in its 
grandest flight, a letter was received from Chicago, 
claiming to state, by authority, that, some time or 
other, Mr. Moody had not held the respect of his 
brethren in America ; and saying things to his discredit, 
which filled the hearts of his friends with alarm. 
They at once despatched across the sea for informa- 
tion; at the same time telling Mr. Moody what had 
been spoken against him. He had relied solely upon 



GOOD CREDENTIALS. 273^ 

God to sustain him, and to open the way before him, 
and had failed to provide himself with any letters of 
credence or introduction ; but his brethren in Chicago, 
as soon as they learned that their friend was in 
trouble, despatched the following testimonial, which, 
once for all, set the matter at rest : — 

Chicago, May 21st, 1874. 

We, the undersigned, Pastors of the City of Chicago, learning 
that the Christian character of D. L. Moody has been attacked, 
for the purpose of destroying his influence as an Evangelist in 
Scotland, hereby certify that his labours in the Young Men's 
Christian Association, and as an Evangelist in this City and 
elsewhere, according to the best information we can get, have 
been Evangelical and Christian in the highest sense of those 
terms ; and we do not hesitate to commend him as an earnest 
Christian worker, worthy of the confidence of our Scotch and 
English brethren, with whom he is now labouring ; believing 
that the Master will be honoured by them in so receiving him 
among them as a co-labourer in the vineyard of the Lord. 

A. J. Jutkins, Presiding Elder of Chicago Dist. 

C. H. Fowler, President North-western University. 

Arthur Edwards, Editor North-western Christian Advocate (Metho- 
dist Organ), Chicago. 

M. C. Briggs. 

S. M'Chesney, Pastor of the Trinity M. E. Church. 

W. H. Daniels, Pastor Park Avenue M. E. Church. 

Sanford Washburn, Pastor Halsted St. Ch., Methodist Episc. 

C. G. Trusdell, Gen. Supt. Chicago Relief and Aid Society. 

Wm. F. Stewart, Sec. Preachers' Aid Society. 

G. L. S. Stuff, Pastor Fulton St. M. E. Church. 

T. P. Marsh, Pastor Austin M. E. Church. 

Lewis Meredith, Pastor Oakland M. E. Church. 

Arthur Mitchell, Pastor First Presb. Ch. 

Glen Wood, Western Sec. American Tract Society. 

C. D. Helmer, Pastor Union Park Congregational Church. 

Arthur Swazey, Pastor Ashland Avenue Presbyterian Church. 

Rev. N. F. Ravlin, Pastor Temple Ch. 

A. G. Eberhart, Asst. Pastor. 

David J. Burrel, Pastor Westminster Presbyterian Church. 

David Swing, Fourth Presb. Church. 

Edward P. Goodwin, Pastor of 1st Cong. Church. 

L. T. Chamberlain, Pastor of New England Cong. Church. 

Edward F. Williams ; Edward N. Packard ; John Kimball ; W. A. 
Lloyd ; C. A. Sowle ; John Bradshaw; C. F. Reed; S. F. Dickinson; 
A. Wesley Bill ; Albert Bushnell, Congregational Ministers. 



274 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

T. W. Guildford, 2nd Baptist Ch. 
W. A. Bartlett, Plymouth Cong. Ch. 
R. W. Patterson, 2nd Pres. Ch. 
W. W. Everts, 1st Baptist Ch. 

State of Illinois, Cook County Ss., 
City of Chicago. 
W. W. VANARSDALE, being first duly sworn upon oath, says 
that he is the Superintendent of the Young Men's Christian 
Association of the city of Chicago, Illinois, and that he knows 
the foregoing signatures to be genuine. 

W. W. VANARSDALE. 

Subscribed and sworn to beiore me, ) Isaac H. Pedrick, 
this 26th day of May, a.d. 1874. \ Notary Public. 

Mr. Moody did not attempt to defend himself, 
but left his defence in the hands of the Lord, who 
straightway sent him this deliverance from his trouble, 
which also caused him to be still more honoured, 
trusted, and beloved. 

Amongst his difficulties in Edinburgh was the 
statement which somehow or other got abroad, that 
he was not quite orthodox on the subject of the per- 
sonality of the Holy Spirit ; and a letter was written 
to the Rev. Dr. Lowe, of Newcastle, who had been 
intimately associated with him, asking if this state- 
ment were true. The Doctor at once replied ; saying 
that, in one of Mr. Moody's Bible-readings at New- 
castle, he himself had been appointed to read the 
texts of Scripture bearing upon this very doctrine ; 
and, said he, " Mr. Moody charged me to be particular 
to bring out the doctrine of the personality of the 
Holy Spirit, by special emphasis upon the personal 
pronouns : " He shall testify of me " ; " He shall lead 
you into all truth." After this there were no more 
accusations of heresy. 



"MAN-MADE REVIVALS:' 275 

But the opposition on the ground of the faults 
in the meetings themselves was not so easily over- 
come. In spite of the utmost care and diligence 
on the part of Mr. Moody and his committee, 
there would occasionally be something which was 
to be regretted. It was not difficult to find fault 
with the unwonted enthusiasm of those exercises, 
so different from the staid and orderly religious as- 
semblies to which Edinburgh had been accustomed. 
Then there was the same old difficulty ; — sinners 
were converted too fast. Time was insisted on as a 
necessary condition to a thorough work of grace in 
the soul. It was presumed that if a sinner were con- 
verted quickly, he could not be converted thoroughly. 
Again, there were those who did not believe in 
Mr. Moody's idea of conversion at all. The transition 
from darkness to light, by the inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost, was something which they failed to com- 
prehend. 

Anonymous letters were written to Mr. Moody and 
his committee, abusing them on account of the organ; 
the inquiry meetings ; " singing the Gospel," etc. 

A pamphlet was issued, in which the revival was 
referred to in such terms as the following : — " Spas- 
modic convulsions"; " Man-made revivals " ; "One- 
sided views of truth " ; ° Superficial experience " ; 
" Arminianism " ; " Plymouthism " ; "Galvanizing"; 
" Sensational shocks " ; " Temporary bustle " ; " Un- 
scriptural inventions " ; " The tinsel of a superficial 
religiousness " ; and the like. 

It is not to be wondered at that learned and 
conservative men, in Scotland and elsewhere, who 



276 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

had been educated in theology as in one of 
the exact sciences, and had spent large portions 
of long lives in discussing theories of doctrine, 
while their hearts had not been melted by the 
heavenly fire, should fail to comprehend such marvels 
as were occurring in this great work of salvation. 
The revival was too much for them : they were not 
able to stand it. They were like ships when the 
monsoon falls upon them : they stood trembling, 
confused, and ready to sink: their protests in pam- 
phlets and sermons were so many despairing out- 
cries for help in their distress. Their hearts were not 
large enough to hold such a blessing ; their heads 
were not clear enough to understand it. They were 
almost drowned in the floods ; they were struggling 
and choking in this Gospel wave, which seemed to be 
filling Scotland, as the waters fill the sea. 

Dr. Horatius Bonar felt moved to come to the 
rescue ; which he did in a tract reviewing the criticisms 
that had been put forth, and showing, not only 
from Scripture, but also from the history of religion 
in Scotland, that this revival was like all the other 
great revivals from Pentecost down ; and giving one 
of the distinguished opponents of the movement, who 
had poured out the vials of his wrath most plenti- 
fully, this brief but crushing rebuke : — After quoting 
a long list of hard names, which this opposing doctor 
had used, as above, he says, " Surely the vocabulary 
has been exhausted. We can hardly conceive of any- 
thing worse. All this is said by one brother against 
hundreds of brethren ! " 

Whether the folly of so small a minority attempt- 



ONE AGAINST MANY. 277 

ing to disgrace and destroy the opinions and work of 
almost the entire evangelical pulpit of Edinburgh, 
began to dawn upon them ; or whether the Spirit 
of the Lord Himself softened the hearts that op- 
posed the revival — certain it is that, after a little, 
the opposition faded out, and the brethren went on 
their way rejoicing, increasing daily in favour both 
with God and men. 

It was no unusual thing for persons to come thirty 
or forty miles to attend the meetings, or to beg fo r 
the sending of some one whose lips had been touched 
with the coal of this altar-fire, to speak to the villagers 
among the mountains ; and long after the meetings 
had closed, and Messrs. Moody and Sankey had gone 
their way to Glasgow and Dublin, applications to the 
Edinburgh committee for evangelistic workers con- 
tinued to be so numerous that it was impossible to 
supply the half of them. 

The converts, who were numbered by thousands, 
were divided into classes, and placed under the care 
of the pastors to whose congregations they properly 
belonged. Great care was taken not to trespass 
upon denominational lines; but when a man who 
had attended a place of worship where the Gospel 
was not preached in its purity, or where there was 
great deadness in religion, came to be blessed in 
the meetings, he naturally sought for a Sabbath 
home with some congregation whose pastor was full 
of the revival. Thus the evangelical ministry were 
almost forced, by the sense of self-preservation, to 
join in the movement, although their prejudices 
might lead them in an opposite direction \ and some 



278 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

such preachers, coming unwillingly under its influence, 
were brought to see their need of a better spiritual 
life, and were among the happiest converts of all. 

Edinburgh is a city of wealth and leisure. Large 
numbers of persons who have either made or in- 
herited fortunes, reside here ; and among the very 
highest classes of Edinburgh society were found the 
heartiest admirers of, and most enthusiastic workers 
with, the evangelists from across the sea. 

But there are also, in this centre of wealth and 
learning, a good many educated infidels, who have 
united themselves into clubs for the purpose of 
preaching their unbelief, in much the same way as 
Christians unite in churches to enjoy the fellowship of 
faith. Among the notable cases of conversion was 
the chairman of one of these infidel clubs. He came 
to a meeting, intending not only to ridicule it, but 
hoping also to raise a controversy with Mr. Moody, 
and thus practically break it up. In this, however, 
he was altogether unsuccessful, and would have been 
thrust out of the house for his interruption, if the 
speaker had not interposed in his behalf. He re- 
mained for some time after the congregation were 
dismissed; and Mr. Moody, seeing him, inquired 
if he wanted to be a Christian. He replied that 
he did not, and that he had a very poor opinion of 
Christians. 

"Would you like to have us* pray for you?" said 
Mr. Moody. 

" Oh yes ; I have no objection to your trying your 
hand on me, if you like ; but I think you will find me 
a match for you." 



CONVERTED INFIDELS. 279 

Mr. Moody kneeled down beside the scoffer, prayed 
for him earnestly and tenderly, and then left him, 
promising to pray for him still further at home. It 
was not long before he was brought under deep con- 
viction of sin, resigned his presidency of the infidel 
club, and earnestly and faithfully sought the Saviour. 

At a subsequent meeting in Edinburgh, out of 
thirty persons seeking the Lord, seventeen were 
members of this infidel club, — one of them its chair- 
man, the successor of him whose conversion has just 
been related ; and who has since become a successful 
evangelist 



2bo 



CHAPTER V. 

THE WORK IN SCOTLAND CONTINUED. 

THE wide-spread desire to obtain the services 
of the American evangelists became exceed- 
ing embarrassing. Requisitions for them pressed 
in from all quarters, not only from ministers, but 
from magistrates and leading citizens of towns both 
large and small. It was not from curiosity to see 
these men who had turned Scotland upside down, 
but from an earnest desire to share in this great 
blessing of the Lord, and from deep anxiety lest the 
revival wave should pass them by. All Scotland was 
begging for their ministry. 

While yet the work of salvation in the capital 
was little more than begun, the spirit of awakening 
seemed to have penetrated the whole country ; and 
the brethren who at first had felt quite satisfied at 
receiving so great a blessing in their own city, now 
began to pray for a similar benediction over all the 
land. It seemed as if God were willing to give any- 
thing that might be asked of Him : more willing to 
give than His people were to receive. 

During the last week of December, copies of the 
following call to prayer were sent to every minister 



CALL TO PRAYER. 2 8i 



in Scotland, excepting Roman Catholics and Uni- 
tarians ; signed, as will be seen, by a great number of 
eminent ministers and professors, as well as by many 
distinguished private citizens : — 

"A WEEK OF PRAYER FOR SCOTLAND. 

"Edinburgh is now enjoying signal manifestations of grace. 
Many of the Lord's people are not surprised at this. Not a few 
ministers and others have for some time been discerning tokens 
of special interest and expectation attending the ordinary minis- 
trations of the Word ; and in October and November last, many 
Christians, of various denominations, met from time to time to 
pray for some remarkable blessing. They hoped that they might 
have a visit from Messrs. Moody and Sankey, of America ; but 
they very earnestly besought the Lord that He would deliver 
them from depending upon them, or on any instrumentality, and 
that He Himself would come with them, or come before them. 
He has graciously answered that prayer, and His own presence 
is now wonderfully manifested, and is felt to be among them. 
God is so affecting the hearts of men, that the Free Church 
Assembly Hall, the largest public building in Edinburgh, is 
crowded every day at noon with a meeting for prayer ; and both 
that building and the Established Church Assembly Hall over- 
flow every evening, when the Gospel is preached. But the num- 
bers that attend are not the most remarkable feature. It is the 
presence and the power of the Holy Ghost, the solemn awe, the 
prayerful, believing, expectant spirit, the anxious inquiry of un- 
saved souls, and the longing of believers to grow more like 
Christ, — their hungering and thirsting after holiness. The hall 
of the Tolbooth Parish Church, and the Free High Church, are 
nightly attended by anxious inquirers. All denominational and 
social distinctions are entirely merged. All this is of the God 
of grace. 

" Another proof of the Holy Spirit's presence is, that a desire 
has been felt and expressed in these meetings, that all Scotland 
should share the blessing that the capital is now enjoying. 

" It is impossible that our beloved friends from America should 
visit every place, or even all those to which they have been urged 
to go. But this is not necessary. The Lord is willing Himself 
to go wherever He is truly invited. He is waiting. The Lord's 
people in Edinburgh, therefore, would affectionately entreat all 
their brethren throughout the land to be importunate in invoking 
Him to come to them, and to dismiss all doubt as to His being 
willing to do so. 

13 



282 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

"The week of prayer, from 4th to nth January next, affords 
a favourable opportunity for combined action. In every town 
and hamlet let there be a daily meeting for prayer during that 
week, and also as often as may be before it. In Edinburgh the 
hour is from 1 2 to 1 ; and where the same hour suits other places, 
it would be pleasing to meet together in faith at the throne of 
grace. But let the prayers not be formal, unbelieving, unexpect- 
ing, but short, fervent, earnest entreaties, mingled with abound- 
ing praise and frequent short exhortations ; let them entreat a 
blessing on all the means of grace enjoyed by our native land ; 
and let them also embrace the whole world, that * God's way 
may be known upon earth, His saving health among all nations/ 
If the country will thus fall on their knees, the God who has 
filled our national history with the wonders of His love will come 
again and surprise even the strongest believers by the unprece- 
dented tokens of His grace. ' Call unto Me, and I will answer 
thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest 
not.'" 

W. G. Blaikie, D.D., Professor, New College. 

Horatius Bonar, D.D., Chalmers' Memorial Church. 

Chas. J. Brown, D.D., Free New North Church. 

H. Calderwood, Professor of Moral Philosophy. 

Laurence G. Carter, Charlotte Baptist Chapel. 

A. H. Charteris, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature. 

John Cooper, late of Fala, United Presbyterian Church. 

Thos. J. Crawford, D.D., Professor of Divinity in the University of 
Edinburgh. 

David Croom, United Presbyterian Church, Lauriston Place. 

G. D. Cullen, Royal Terrace. 

Alexander Duff, D.D. 

William Grant, Bristo Place Baptist Chapel. 

William Hanna, D.D., 16, Magdala Crescent. 

John Kelman, Free St. John's, Leith. 

Robert Macdonald, D.D., Free North Leith. 

Hamilton M. MacGill, D.D., Secretary of Mission Board, United 
Presbyterian Church. 

James MacGregor, D. D. , Professor, New College. 

W. Scott Moncrieff, St. Thomas' Episcopal Church. 

John M'Murtrie, St. Bernard's Church. 

John Morgan, Viewforth Free Church. 

Maxwell Nicholson, D.D., St. Stephen's Church. 

Samuel Newnam, Baptist Church, Dublin Street. 

Robert Rainy, D.D., Professor, New College. 

Wm. Reid, United Presbyterian Church, Lothian Road. 

William Robertson, D.D., New Greyfriars Church. 

James Robertson, United Presbyterian Church, Newington. 

A. Moody Stuart, Free St. Luke's. 

Andrew Thomson, D.D., Broughton Place United Presbyterian 
Church. 



REVIVAL DEPUTATIONS. 283 

John Wemyss, Richmond Place Congregational Church. 

Alexander Whyte, St. George's Free Church. 

Ninian Wight, Congregational Church. 

George Wilson, Tolbooth Parish Church. 

J. H. Wilson, Barclay Free Church. 

John Young, United Presbyterian Church, Newington. 

J. H. Balfour, Professor of Botany. 

Ja. Balfour, 13, Eton Terrace. 

George F. Barbour, George Square. 

Cavan, 12, Lennox Street. 

John Chalmers, Castle Bank, Merchiston. 

David Dickson, Merchiston. 

William Dickson, 38, York Place. 

F. Brown Douglas. 21, Moray Place. 

Wm. J as. Duncan, 29, Abercromby Place. 

E. Erskine Scott, 25, Melville Street. 

William Gibson, Lauriston Gardens. 

John Gifford, 41, St. Andrew Square. 

Robert Haldane, Charlotte Square. 

George Harvey, President Royal Academy. 

A. Jenkinson, Princes Street. 

John Millar, 26, York Place. 

David M'Laren, Redfern House. 

Duncan M'Laren, Jun., Newington House. 

Francis Outram, Bart. 

Polwarth, Mertoun House. 

Hugh Rose, 3, Hillside Crescent. 

Mr. Moody pointed out that it was quite impossible 
for himself and Mr. Sankey to comply with all the 
requests sent in for assistance ; but he suggested that 
deputations should be sent out from Edinburgh ; 
mentioning several distinguished ministers and laymen, 
who, he thought, should go on such errands. These 
brethren, receiving such appointments, went forth 
gladly in the name of Christ, and returned with ex- 
ceeding joy, to tell what the Lord had done through 
their word. Their reports formed one of the pleasing 
features at the daily prayer-meeting, — at which Mr. 
Moody insisted that all who. had been engaged in these 
outside meetings should give an account of their work 
immediately on their return ; and the good news ac- 



284 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

cumulated so rapidly, that the hearts and minds of the 
people were unable to take it in. The story seemed 
almost too good to be true. 

Perhaps no meeting in Edinburgh was more re- 
markable than that which closed the year 1873. 
Mr. Moody had appointed what is called a watch- 
night service, at which the last hours of the old 
year were to be spent in the worship of God, and 
the new year was to be ushered in with prayer and 
praise. There were many misgivings about the possi- 
bility of keeping a large audience together from 
eight o'clock till twelve ; but Mr. Moody's expecta- 
tions were fully justified by the crowd which occupied 
the Free Assembly Hall for five full hours. A great 
many persons were obliged to stand throughout the 
entire service ; and this they did without a word of 
complaint. After singing and prayer, Mr. Moody 
announced the order of exercises. " Anything that is 
worship," said he, "will be in order." Prayer was offered 
at intervals. Mr. Sankey and the Jubilee Singers 
introduced most beautiful and appropriate solos and 
choruses. Mr. Moody reviewed the seven utterances 
of Christ — " I will." As he read the verses contain- 
ing them, one after another, the whole audience, at 
his request, read the verses in concert. So great was 
the variety and interest of the meeting, that every 
one who stole a glance at the clock wondered to see 
how quickly the hours passed by. 

Soon after eleven the lecture closed ; and the re- 
mainder of the year was given to prayer — sometimes 
silently, sometimes audibly. At five minutes before 
twelve all speaking ceased. The distant shouts of 



WATCH-NIGHT. 285 



the revellers outside were the only sounds to be 
heard. Kneeling, with bowed heads, the whole great 
assembly, with one accord, prayed in silence ; till 
presently the clocks of the city, one after another, 
struck the hour which marked the close of the old 
year and the coming in of the new. For five minutes 
more the deep and awful silence continued ; and then 
Mr. Moody gave out the last two verses of the hymn, 

" Jesus, lover of my soul." 

After a brief prayer, the benediction was pro- 
nounced, and all began, like one loving family, to 
wish each other a Happy New Year. 

Great as were the blessings received hitherto, those 
which followed the " week of prayer for Scotland " far 
exceeded them ; and the brethren began to say : 
The Master of the feast has kept the good wine until 
now. 

At first the work of grace had been principally 
confined to the middle and higher classes of society ; 
but at the close of the fourth week special measures 
were adopted for the purpose of bringing the Gospel 
to the poor. In accordance with this design, a 
meeting was appointed in the Grass Market ; — a 
spacious square in the old town of Edinburgh, which 
in former times was the scene of many martyr exe- 
cutions. On the south side of this square is the 
Corn Exchange, an immense building capable of 
holding six thousand persons. In this place a meet- 
ing was held, on Sabbath evening the 28th of De- 
cember, for men only. The admission was by ticket. 

At the close a great number of anxious per- 



286 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

sons followed Mr. Moody to the Free Church 
Assembly Hall, where an inquiry meeting was 
going on ; and seeing the multitudes, the door- 
keeper came up to Dr. Bonar, who, with others, 
was dealing with the inquirers, bringing the intelli- 
gence, which was alike startling and embarrassing, 
"that Mr. Moody had brought up the whole Grass 
Market with him." The body of the hall was cleared 
for these men — many of them young men ; and they 
pressed in to the number of not less than six or seven 
hundred. These could not be conversed with sepa- 
rately, and Mr. Moody accordingly addressed them 
all together. When those who wished to give them- 
selves to Christ were invited to kneel, all of them, 
as well as every one else in every part of the house, 
kneeled down ; while Mr. Wilson, and afterwards Mr. 
Moody, led their prayer in giving themselves to 
Christ. 

Previous to the arrival of the men from the Grass 
Market, on this occasion, a service was held in the 
hall for women only. The hall, as usual, was densely 
crowded, and seventy or eighty inquirers remained 
behind to be spoken to. 

Dr. Bonar, in referring to this meeting next day, 
at the noon hour of prayer, said ; — " In all my life 
I never preached to such an audience. The vast 
multitude bowed under the simple preaching of the 
Gospel, and without any excitement were melted 
into tears of penitence, and the children of God to 
tears of joy." 

Such were some of the revival services by which 
the week of prayer was preceded. What, then, 



THE WEEK OF PRAYER. 287 

must have been the blessings which followed it, 
which could be described as the best of the wine 
at the last of the feast ? 

On Sabbath, the 4th of January, 1874, the ser- 
vices in connection with the week of prayer were 
commenced. Meetings were held in the two Assembly 
Halls, as well as in churches in all parts of the 
city, including several of those in the Episcopal 
communion ; and as an evidence of the increasing 
catholicity of spirit which the revival had brought 
about, it was noticed that ministers of different 
denominations, who had hitherto held themselves 
widely apart, joined in hearty work and worship 
together. 

On Monday, the 5th of January, Mr. Moody paid 
a flying visit to Glasgow, to be present at the noon 
prayer-meeting in that city ; which he reported, at the 
nine o'clock meeting in the Free Assembly Hall, the 
same evening, as an occasion of great spiritual power. 

"God is going to do a great work in Glasgow," 
said he. " In the last two hours of our meeting there 
I met with about seventy-five young persons anxious 
to know what they must do to be saved." 

A great variety of exercises were crowded into this 
week, at different hours of every day and evening. 
At all of them there was a great number of inquirers ; 
and sometimes it was necessary even to close the door 
of the inquiry room, lest the crowd should make it 
impossible to proceed with the instructions. 

It was not only in the regions round about the 
Free Assembly Hall, and in other choice localities 
in Edinburgh and Leith, but also among the poor 



288 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

and neglected populations of the Canongate and 
Cowgate, that the revival tide was observed to be 
rising. God seemed, indeed, to be blessing all classes 
and conditions of men. 

A merchant, whose place of business was in a 
neighbourhood where drunken men and women fre- 
quently passed his door, declared that the influence 
of the revival was plainly apparent among the lower 
classes ; for, since it began, he had seen very few per- 
sons passing his place in a state of intoxication. 

A confectioner, whose trade consisted chiefly in 
providing ball suppers, was disgusted with the 
revival ; it almost spoilt his business. 

Separate meetings for men, women, and children 
were held, all of which were marked by deep spiritual 
power. So profound an impression was made upon 
the whole community, that strangers coming into 
the city were at once impressed with the feeling that 
something very unusual was going on. It was as if 
the blessing of God pervaded the very air. No 
wonder, then, that multitudes came in all the trains 
from all parts of Scotland, to breathe in the heavenly 
influence, which came down upon Edinburgh even as 
upon Jerusalem at Pentecost ! 

During the last weeks which Messrs. Moody and 
Sankey spent in Edinburgh, the love and gratitude of 
the people went out towards them in a tide of Chris- 
tian affection. In many a household thanksgivings 
were daily offered to God for sending these brethren 
to labour in that city. 

The simple and Scriptural style of Mr. Moody's 
addresses won the hearts of the great masses of 



THE EDINBURGH CONVENTION. 289 

Bible-loving Scotchmen; while his method of in- 
structing inquirers at first astonished, and then 
delighted them. They had never seen so many- 
people saved in so short a time. But now a new view 
of an old truth appeared to them, and they saw that 
what was necessary for becoming a Christian was, not 
a long period of instruction and repentance, but the 
simple act of trusting in Jesus. 

Requests for prayer poured in continually — some of 
them even from foreign countries. One lady asked 
prayer for her own conversion, saying, " I have come 
from Switzerland to be present at these meetings. I 
have been well brought up, but am not a Christian." 

Some time after the special meetings closed, a 
letter was received from New Zealand, asking prayer 
for a revival in that colony. 

The Christian convention which was held on the 
4th of January, in the Free Assembly Hall, was a 
memorable and delightful occasion. About a hun- 
dred and fifty ministers from all parts of the country, 
and of all denominations, came up to consult with 
their brethren from America, upon the best methods 
of conducting the various departments of Christian 
work. From eleven in the morning till four in the 
afternoon the exercises were kept up, varying in form 
and increasing in power. Such a meeting had never 
been seen in Edinburgh before ; not on account of its 
numbers, but on account of the great variety of 
religious sentiment represented in it. Surely nothing 
but the overwhelming baptism of the Spirit of God 
could have swept away the barriers which had so 
long kept these brethren apart : and if there is one 

13* 



290 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

thing more than another which attests the Divine 
character of the revival in Scotland under the labours 
of these American evangelists, it is the great progress 
which was made towards Christian fraternity and 
unity. 

Remarkable cases of conversion were continually 
reported. The accounts of the meetings formed a 
large portion of the reading matter in the public 
press. A periodical entitled " Times of Blessing " 
was started, to spread the good news. All the 
religious newspapers and magazines in the United 
Kingdom vied with each other in obtaining full and 
graphic reports of the wonders of the work of grace 
in Scotland. 

Here, as everywhere else, Mr. Moody's instructions 
were remarkable for their strictly Biblical character. 
People were not thrust into the kingdom of heaven 
by means of enthusiasm and ekcitement, but they 
were taught to enter by the strait gate ; and on this 
account it is, no doubt, that converts in that revival 
hold out so well. 

A workman who had found the Saviour relates his 
experience thus : — 

" Six months ago I heard an address from the 
words ' Whosoever believeth hath everlasting life.' I 
had been a bad character, and could not take it to 
myself; but when I went home that night, I dreamed 
' whosoever ' meant me. I got bang out of bed, and 
went away to the Bible to see the word ' whosoever.' " 
"But," said one, " did you not know it was in the 
Bible ? " " Oh yes, but I went to see it with my 
own eyes, and I have been resting on it ever since." 



FAREWELL TO EDINBURGH. 291 

Not less than three thousand persons have been 
received into the various churches in Edinburgh as a 
result of this great awakening. The pastors are 
still holding meetings for inquiry and instruction 
with the large classes of converts which at that time 
came under their care ; and it is believed that a 
great number of persons, who attended these meetings 
from other towns and villages, have been received into 
their churches at home. 

The farewell meeting of Messrs. Moody and Sankey 
at Edinburgh was held in the fields, on the slopes of 
Arthur's Seat ; no building being at all adequate 
to accommodate the vast congregation. The whole 
city, one might almost say, came out to bid them good- 
bye and God speed. From this historic seat of Chris- 
tian learning, which they had entered with so much 
trembling, they went forth, with the blessings of the 
whole community upon them, and with such joy in 
their hearts as only those can know who are honoured 
of God in leading many souls to Christ. 



292 



CHAPTER VI. 

WORK IN SCOTLAND CONTINUED.-— GLASGOW AND 
THE NORTH. 

ON the 8th of February, Messrs. Moody and 
Sankey, having finished their course in Edin- 
burgh with joy, began their work at Glasgow; where, 
for a month before their arrival, special prayer 
had been offered for the blessing of God upon 
their labours. A meeting of ministers and leading 
brethren was called for to make arrangements for the 
approaching revival services. This meeting was held 
in a large church of the Scottish Establishment, 
which had never been used for such a purpose before. 

It was thought a strange thing that Dr. Andrew 
Bonar, of the Free Church, should be introduced by 
the pastor of this Established Church, and that many 
ministers of different denominations should be seated 
together on the platform ! 

This sight had a happy effect upon the congrega- 
tion, and was a prophecy of the harmonious manner 
in which these brethren were to labour together ; 
and in which the whole community was to be united 
in Christian fellowship and work. 

The first meeting was held on Sunday the 8th. 



A PROPHECY FULFILLED. 293 

An hour before the time a vast crowd had assembled, 
and four large churches in the vicinity were filled. 
During the whole time the services continued, these 
overflow meetings were a part of the regular system. 
While Mr. Moody was preaching in the principal place, 
Mr. Sankey assisted at another ; and the ministers 
of the city were also actively engaged in conducting 
these extra services. Dr. Bonar, the Rev. Mr. Laing, 
the Rev. Mr. Wall, and others, rendered good service 
in this department of the work ; and a share of the 
blessing always appeared to be given to them and 
their outside congregations. 

It is held to be a most remarkable fact, that Mr. 
Moody, himself an unordained evangelist, not only 
obtained access to pulpits of various denominations, 
but was the means of bringing ministers of different 
orders together as they never had been brought to- 
gether before. On his previous visit to Glasgow, in 
1872, he scarcely produced a ripple on the surface of 
the Christian community ; but this time God was with 
him ; he had a message from heaven ; and almost the 
whole population of the town, as if impressed with 
this fact, eagerly crowded to hear him. 

The prediction which he had made at the Edin- 
burgh noon-meeting, that God was about to send 
a great blessing to Glasgow, was now abundantly 
fulfilled. The month of prayer and preparation had 
not been spent in vain ; and on his arrival, he was 
able to say to the people, with especial emphasis, 
" Come, for all things are now ready." 

The same methods which had been so successful 
elsewhere, were repeated here. Meetings for young 



294 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

men, Christian workers, men's meetings, women's 
meetings, and conventions, were held , with evident 
indications of the presence of the Holy Spirit; The 
whole community was alive with the revival. From 
this centre, also, spiritual influences radiated into the 
regions round about. In one instance five young 
men, who lived at a distant village, made a journey 
to Glasgow, were much impressed with what they 
heard, and went home to spread the good news. 
They invited others to go and hear for themselves. 
Then they began to hold meetings for prayer; and 
presently the revival wave reached their little village 
also. 

One young man from a distance was humbled 
before God, and went home to tell what Jesus had 
done for him ; and here, in a secluded hamlet, a 
shower of blessing descended. There was one place 
in particular for which prayer was offered at the 
noon meeting, which, it was stated, had been alto- 
gether won for the Lord. Previous to this it had 
been, to all appearance, utterly dead — one of the 
most barren and hopeless fields in which a minister 
could labour ; but within two months from the time 
these prayers were offered for it, its pastor reported 
that, in the great congregation which assembled night 
after night for worship, he was not able to discover 
a single person who had not been under deep con- 
cern, or was not now resting in Jesus. 

The small town of Dollar, where is an academy con- 
taining nine hundred pupils, gathered from all parts of 
the world, was a place in which great interest was 
felt ; and efforts were made to secure a visit from the 



REVIVALS FAR AND WIDE. 295 

American evangelists. Failing in this, the brethren 
there began to work among themselves ; first appoint- 
ing three nights of united prayer for the outpouring 
of the Spirit, and subsequently holding revival 
meetings for three weeks in the large academy hall. 
The result was an almost simultaneous awakening 
amongst the pupils in all the schools, as well as 
among the inhabitants of the town. 

In one place, with a population of not more than 
two thousand five hundred, as many as fourteen 
hundred persons would come together for prayer. 

The revival work in Glasgow and its vicinity was 
greatly strengthened by the assistance of ministers 
and others, who came down from Edinburgh to labour 
in, as well as to enjoy, the meetings. These brethren, 
with a large number of Christian workers who were 
raised up among the young men of the town, carried 
the work into the regions beyond, with ever accumu- 
lating interest and power. 

The Glasgow noon prayer-meeting had been com- 
menced during the week of prayer for Scotland. On 
the very first day, a soul was awakened ; and from 
that time, never a day passed without tokens of the 
presence of the Lord. Requests for prayer continued 
to come in — sometimes from long distances in the 
country. One instance is mentioned of prayer being 
asked, by his parents, for a young man who had not 
been heard of for years; and from whom a letter 
was afterwards received, dated at New Zealand, say- 
ing that the prodigal had been longing to open com- 
munication with his friends at home, and had ridden 
a hundred and fifty miles to post that letter. 



2 9 6 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

It was touching in the extreme to listen to the 
requests for prayer, from Highlands and Lowlands, 
from places well known, and from places whose names 
few had ever heard before ; all of them crying out 
for the blessing of God, like dry and thirsty lands 
for showers of rain. Sometimes the thanksgivings 
almost outnumbered the requests. On one day 
thanksgivings were offered for the conversion of 
eighty-eight persons. The brethren, at first, regarded 
these simply as the fruit of the labours of the evan- 
gelists from America; but as news continued to come 
from all quarters, of the outpouring of the Spirit of 
God, they changed their minds, and began to say, 
"We are not alone; the Lord is blessing all Scotland." 
These revivals were evidently not "gotten up," but 
"brought down." It was the Lord's doing, and 
marvellous in all eyes. 

Mr. Moody's success in Glasgow, as in Edinburgh, 
was, at first, amongst those who had received a religi- 
ous education. To these persons his Bible-readings 
were peculiarly acceptable ; and such crowds attended 
them, that admission had to be arranged by ticket. 
On Sunday mornings, at eight o'clock, addresses were 
given to Christian workers ; and many Sunday-school 
teachers thought nothing of walking ten or fifteen 
miles at this early hour, to profit by Mr. Moody's 
experience and advice. One morning a man was 
found outside who was in great distress. He had 
come ten miles to attend that service, but had lost 
his ticket, and was not able to get in. 

Dr. Andrew Bonar, in speaking of Mr. Moody, 
says : " There has been no evangelist with us from a 



THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN OPENED. 297 

distance, in whom we have had such confidence. 
He was so thorough, so Scriptural, so simple. My 
church," he went on to say, " is not very central ; but 
I always sent my people and Sunday-school to his 
meetings, and they brought home a great deal of 
blessing with them." 

The revival wave had now become so mighty that 
few were rash enough to oppose it, except those who 
hated all forms of piety, and were full of spite against 
Christ Himself. Everything seemed favourable to 
the awakening of sinners and the upbuilding of saints. 
Blessings abounded, and were easy to find. 

One lady, who had been converted at the meetings, 
began to talk to her husband about Christ. At first 
he seemed to care little about it; but one morning 
she repeated to him, as well as she could, Mr. Moody's 
address of the previous evening, on Grace. When she 
had finished, he left the room, and in an hour came 
back happily converted. 

" We don't know what to make of this work," said 
one ; " it is so quick. Sinners seem to come into the 
kingdom of Christ almost without effort." 

A distinguished gentleman had been converted; and 
one of his friends came to ask him this question : — 

" Can you tell me in what you rest for salvation ? " 

" Yes, I can," was the reply ; and opening the Bible, 
he pointed out these words : " God hath given us 
eternal life, and that life is in His Son." 

Thus, as will be seen, the revival work in Glasgow 
was, like all the others, along the track of God's Word. 

This charming little domestic scene is related by 
Dr. Bonar : — 



298 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

" I called on a man and his wife in my parish, and 
said to the woman, 'I hear you have been getting 
some blessing.' 

" We have been attending the meetings," was the 
reply. 

" And have you not been blessed ? " 

" Yes ; we have." 

" Tell me something about it." 

" Well, the other night my husband went out to a 
meeting ; and when he was gone, I slipped out after 
him, heard just a little, and then came home and 
gave myself to Jesus. He was blessed too, that 
night ; and when he came in he sat down very 
quietly, and looked at me, — and I looked at him. 
Then I said, Have you got anything ? Yes, said 
he : have you ? I think I have, said I. Well, that 
was just what I was wanting to tell you, but I didn't 
know where to begin. And now, said the wife, we 
are so happy together ! " 

The readiness with which inquirers came into the 
enjoyment of pardon and peace, was the chief 
distinguishing feature of the revival in Glasgow. 
The door of the kingdom of heaven seemed to be 
very wide open. Every church in the city was 
blessed ; and some ministers who had been doing their 
work in a professional way came into an experience of 
grace, which gave them a new understanding of 
Christ and His Gospel. Five such cases are mentioned 
in Glasgow alone. In one church, fifty- four new com- 
municants were received on the last Sabbath before 
Mr. Moody left— almost all of whom had been led by 
him to the Lord ; while, six months afterwards, forty- 



MR. SANKEY AND THE CHILDREN. 299 

eight others were received into the same communion, 
who dated their first impressions from his meetings. 
It is believed that not less than six thousand persons, 
in all, came to the inquiry rooms ; some of whom had 
indeed been members of churches before, but were 
now for the first time brought out into light and 
joy. 

The way in which God suited His blessing to Glas- 
gow is matter of especial interest. Beginning with 
those who had been well instructed in the Scriptures, 
it wrought its work upon them ; and, when they felt 
themselves saved, the Spirit of the Lord seemed to 
direct them to go out and labour for the great masses 
of the population which, here, as in other manu- 
facturing communities, were outside the ordinary 
means of grace. Meetings were held in the streets 
and squares of the city ; and invitations to attend 
them were distributed by young men of the different 
Christian Associations. 

Fathers and mothers met to pray for the conver- 
sion of their children. Some young ladies held a 
prayer-meeting one night, at which forty were led to 
seek Christ. Children's meetings were also held, 
to which the little people crowded no less eagerly 
than their elders. On one occasion there was a great 
swarm of boys and girls crowding the passages near 
the pulpit. It was in vain to insist on their keep- 
ing back ; and after a while, Mr. Sankey, who was 
especially popular with the children, seeing the situa- 
tion, pushed aside the barrier and let the crowd of 
his little friends into the reserved seats, where they 
filled up the chinks between the ministers and the 



300 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

choir, like so many grains of sand. Better still, 
they swarmed into the great pulpit, and Mr. Moody 
allowed them to sit down all around him ; every inch 
of the pulpit stairs being covered with them. 

The conversion of one young girl, which was 
almost immediately followed by her triumphant 
death, was blessed to the awakening of six of her 
companions, who came to the services saying, "We 
wish to go to the meeting in the same church where 
Lizzie found Christ." 

So deeply were the exercises pervaded by a sense 
of the Divine Presence, that, apart from the speaking 
and the singing, it was good to be there. One 
man who was so deaf that he could not distin- 
guish a word of the preaching, went away deeply 
convicted of his sins, and afterwards was happily 
converted. The Lord was there, and he had heard 
Him speak. 

At one of the noon meetings a gentleman brought 
to Mr. Moody a paper, signed by five hundred work- 
men in one of the ship-yards of Glasgow, petitioning 
for a visit from him during their noon intermission. 
Messrs. Moody and Sankey spent half an hour with 
them, to their great delight. Their rest for dinner 
was only three-quarters of an hour; but from this, a 
large number out of the two thousand men employed 
in that yard now find time every day for twenty 
minutes of prayer. " The ladies," as the men called 
the choir, were requested to go down and sing for 
them ; this they consented to do, twice a week, for 
about two months ; and by means of the singing, as 
well as the preaching and prayer, many of the work- 



A BLESSING ON THE SINGING. 301 

men were led to the Saviour. " Once for all " ; " Jesus 
of Nazareth passeth by " ; " Free from the law " ; 
" Hold the fort," etc., were found remarkably useful. 
Mr. Howie, the superintendent, says that scarcely 
a day passed without his having men coming to him 
anxious about their souls, who had been awakened 
by the singing at the yard. 

Outside meetings of various characters were held — 
sometimes ten or fifteen each day. The highways and 
hedges were searched by the new converts for people 
whom they might compel to come to this feast of the 
Lord ; and many a guest did they bring. 

The story of the band of young converts, known 
as the " Ewing Place Young Men," is one of par- 
ticular interest. On the evening of February 24th, 
a large number of young men, who were unable to 
obtain admission to the principal meeting, came 
together in the Ewing Place Church ; where Mr. 
Moody, Professor Cairns, the Rev. J. H. Wilson, and 
others, met them at the close of the preaching in the 
City Hall. The spirit of conviction seemed over- 
whelming ; and when those who were not saved, 
but who desired to give themselves to Christ, were 
invited to come forward to the three front lines of pews, 
which had been cleared for them, the pews were imme- 
diately filled : again three other lines were cleared, 
and quickly filled with inquirers: then three other 
lines were filled with the same class of persons, — in all, 
to the number of one hundred and one. This was the 
first time the so-called " altar services" were ever seen 
in Glasgow. 

Very many of these young men were converted 



302 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

before leaving the place ; and feeling the special tie of 
brotherhood which came of their similar experience, 
they joined themselves together into a band, for the 
purpose of making themselves useful in the work of 
the Lord. Every night, except Saturday, for the 
period of nine months, their prayer-meeting was 
attended by anxious inquirers ; and " Ewing Place " 
became familiar, not only among the young men in 
Glasgow, but among earnest young Christians all 
over Scotland. Afterwards, the meeting was removed 
from Ewing Place Church; but the organization is still 
efficiently maintained. 

The history of the Ewing Place Leaflet, inserted 
below, is interesting, as a glimpse at the work of these 
young converts in the lowest portions of the city. 



" Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning that they may 
follow strong drink." Isaiah v. II. 

" Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, and maketh him 
drunken." Habakkuk ii. 15. 

"Drunkards shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." 1 Cor.vi. 10. 



THE WATER OF LIFE. 

Jesus says, " If any man thirst, let him come unto 
Me and drink." John vii. 37. 

"And the Spirit and Bride say, Come. . . . And 
let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let 
him take the Water of Life freely." Rev. xxii. 17. 

"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, From Thy wounded side which flowed, 

Let me hide myself in Thee ; Be of sin the double cure, 

Let the water and the blood j Save me from its guilt and power." 



THE EWING PLACE LEAFLET. 303 

Two young men were distributing copies of this 
leaflet near one of the largest grog-shops in Glas- 
gow ; but the manager of the place, not liking such 
quiet opposition to his business, had the young men 
arrested. They were brought before the magis- 
trates, on the charge of obstructing the street, and 
fined ten shillings each, and costs. This produced a 
great excitement among the temperance and Chris- 
tian people ; and in response to the general desire 
to know the nature of the leaflet which the young 
men were fined for distributing, it was reprinted in 
the form of an immense placard, and posted all over 
the city : copies of the leaflet itself were also dis- 
tributed in vast numbers ; and thus the temperance 
movement was aided rather than hindered by this 
small persecution. 

The great convention of Christian workers at the 
Kibble Crystal Palace, in the Botanic Gardens, on 
the 1 6th of April, was a most memorable occasion. 
The Palace, which can be seated for six thousand 
people, was filled to overflowing, while the platform 
was crowded with the most eminent ministers and 
evangelists from all parts of Scotland. The practical 
results of that convention, and of the revival at large, 
are still apparent in the vigour with which all depart- 
ments of home-missionary work are now carried on. 
In this respect Glasgow is often cited as a model. 

The last week, during which the meetings were held 
in the Kibble Palace, was in many respects the 
most remarkable of all. The building was crowded 
night after night, each time with a different audi- 
ence. One evening the meeting was for warehouse 



304 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

girls, and those in shops who had been prevented 
from going to the other services, on account of their 
late hours of labour. On that occasion it is com- 
puted that about nine thousand young women were 
present. Mr. Moody preached; and afterwards an 
inquiry meeting was held in a neighbouring church. 
The next evening the Palace was packed with about 
seven thousand young men ; and there were nearly 
as many more outside who were unable to obtain 
admission. 

On Friday the meeting was for young converts, 
who were admitted by special tickets, of which three 
thousand five hundred were issued. The rest of the 
space was filled with Christian workers. 

In speaking of this memorable occasion, one writer 
says : " Mr. Moody's subject was, l What God is able 
to do.' He was grand, and so happy ! The ministers 
were a sight ! They became quite wrapt-up and 
excited. It was a treat to watch them. Moody talked 
a long time ; Sankey breaking in with ' Daniel's 
band/ and ' More to follow ' ; but we could have 
listened long — all night, I believe." Mr. Moody, in 
speaking of it, said, " It seemed as if we were then 
receiving the Spirit as a seal on all our meetings." 
On Saturday a children's meeting was held. 

But Sabbath was the day of days. In the morning 
the meeting was again for shop girls. The Palace was 
full at nine o'clock, and Mr. Moody preached from 
the text, " There was no room for them in the inn." 
On account of the heat the meeting was short, being 
over by a quarter to ten ; and then followed a meet- 
ing for inquirers. 



GLASGOW'S FAREWELL. 305 

The evening meeting was announced for half-past 
six ; but an hour before the time, the Palace was 
densely filled, and a much larger number were outside 
than inside. Every moment the throng increased ; 
and when Mr. Moody arrived, the policemen on the 
ground estimated the number at not less than fifty 
thousand persons. Seeing the multitudes, Mr. 
Moody determined to preach from the carriage, in 
which he was driven through the crowd to a central 
and commanding position. The whole multitude 
closed around him in one solid mass, standing in 
perfect order and quietness, and eagerly listening to 
the words of him whose face they might see no 
more. When those inside the Palace learned of this 
change of programme, they immediately joined the 
masses outside ; but even this great reinforcement 
made no perceptible difference in that vast congre- 
gation. 

Over all this great assembly, Mr. Sankey's voice was 
heard distinctly while he sang "Nothing but leaves." 
Then Mr. Moody mounted the box of the carriage, 
and preached with marvellous effect. At the close of 
his discourse, he invited inquirers to meet him in the 
Palace ; and this spacious inquiry room was quite filled. 
It was a great gathering of unhappy souls : some who 
were present remarked how sorrowful the faces looked. 
This meeting was kept up until half-past ten at night. 
Mr. Moody, Mr. Stewart, and others stated, simply and 
plainly, the way of salvation. Large numbers found 
peace in believing ; but when, at the close, Mr. Moody 
asked all those to rise who were still unsaved, nearly 
two thousand rose to their feet. 
14 



306 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

It was remarked that this was a new audience, 
because they did not know how to sing the hymns. 

From Glasgow, brief excursions were made to Gou- 
rock, Paisley, and Greenock, where the same Divine 
blessing attended them. 

THE TOUR IN THE NORTH. 

About the middle of May Messrs. Moody and 
Sankey paid another three days' visit to Edinburgh, 
and then turned their faces northward, — where, in 
Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Elgin, Inverness, Tain, 
and some other smaller towns, their coming was 
anxiously awaited. 

In Dundee, the churches which were opened for 
their use were so inadequate, that meetings were held 
in the open air; at which the attendance was variously 
estimated at from ten thousand to sixteen thousand 
souls. 

The two weeks of meetings in Aberdeen, commenc- 
ing on the 14th of June, were on the same magnificent 
scale. No room was large enough for the congre- 
gations ; and the outdoor meetings, in the delightful 
summer evenings of the North, were attended by 
multitudes varying from twelve thousand to twenty 
thousand people. 

The revival at Inverness was signalized by many 
striking incidents. Messrs. Moody and Sankey visited 
that place in the first week of July, at the time of 
the annual wool fair; when hundreds of farmers 
from all over the Highlands, and wool dealers from 
Edinburgh and Glasgow, meet to transact the chief 
business of the year. Very many of these farmers 



A WHOLE FAMILY SAVED. 307 

spend their lives beyond the reach of churches and 
ministers, and the coming of the American evangelists 
was to them a God-send indeed. Some who had 
scarcely ever attended religious services before, re- 
ceived the Gospel literally as good news from heaven. 
Great numbers were converted, and, at the close of 
the fair, dispersed to their homes to awaken and bless 
those hitherto neglected regions. So great an im- 
pression was made at Inverness, that arrangements 
are now in progress for celebrating the first anniver- 
sary of the visit of Messrs. Moody and Sankey to 
that town. Well may their work be remembered, 
in view of such scenes as the following : — 

An elderly gentleman and his wife, passing out of 
Dr. Black's Presbyterian church, were invited to go 
into the room where Mr. Moody was waiting to 
receive inquirers. 

"No, not to-night," said the man, looking at his 
wife as if she were a hindrance to such a movement. 
But the brother who had given the invitation, seeing 
the embarrassment, said, " Let the lady also come in." 
They were the first inquirers to arrive. Mr. Moody, 
taking them into the pastor's study, gave them such 
instruction as their cases seemed to require ; and 
before they left the room, both of them were rejoicing 
in hope of eternal life. Half-an-hour afterwards 
the lady returned, saying, " I want to see Mr. Moody ; 
I want to tell him that my two sons have been at the 
inquiry meeting in another part of the church, and 
both have given their hearts to the Saviour." 

This man was a comfortable farmer on one of the 
northern islands ; his sons were settled near him : 



308 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

and the whole family, thus blessed of God, returned 
to their island home to spread the Gospel, which 
they had heard with such blessed results, at the 
fair. 

Northward still, even to the very end of Scotland — 
John o' Groat's House — Moody and Sankey went, 
preaching and singing everywhere to crowds of people, 
under the sky, the only roof large enough to cover them. 
Mr. Moody was everywhere regarded as a prophet 
of the Lord, sent to bless His people in Scotland ; 
and Mr. Sankey, in spite of his organ, was received as 
an humble successor of the Psalmist himself. The 
brethren in the ministry gave them cordial welcome 
and hearty assistance. " The men " — that is, the leaders 
in the Highland churches — were, some of them, a little 
troubled about Mr. Sankey's hymns ; so unlike were 
they to the psalms in Rouse's version. One of them 
came to his pastor and said, with no little anxiety : 
" I cannot do with the hymns. They are all the time 
in my head, and I cannot get them out. The psalms 
never trouble me that way." 

"Very well," said the pastor; "then I think you 
should keep to the hymns." 

People sometimes expostulated with Mr. Sankey con- 
cerning his organ, on the ground that it was sure to be 
a serious stumbling-block in the way of many whom 
he might otherwise reach with his singing. On 
one occasion a compromise was effected ; the organ 
was used with the outdoor congregations, and left 
outside the sanctuary when the meeting was taken 
up within. On this occasion Mr. Sankey sang with 
such remarkable success that one of his friends con- 



"THE NINETY-AND-NINE? 309 

gratulated him on this separation of the singer from 
his unsanctified musical machine. 

That beautiful hymn, " The ninety-and-nine," which 
has been blessed to the awakening of so many souls, 
has a pleasant little history of its own. Mr. Sankey 
was anxious lest his singing should be a failure in 
the Highlands — the people there being so particular 
about what should be sung ; and, accordingly, he 
searched for something specially adapted to their 
tastes. One day he found, in the corner of a news- 
paper,* the hymn above mentioned : the strange, 
wild melody to which it is set, came to his mind as 
an inspiration, and he sang it for the first time in the 
presence of a great congregation, without ever having 
written it out. This hymn, which seemed to be a 
special gift to this pastoral people, they received 
with peculiar pleasure : it was their favourite among 
all Mr. Sankey's songs ; and, when he brought it down 
with him from the North, it became also a favourite 
all over Great Britain and Ireland. 

Sometimes there was almost a strife to obtain 
the services of the evangelists even for a single 
day; and from such brief but impressive services, 
the most important results often followed. "The 
people of Scotland," said one of the Highland 
ministers, "hold strong opinions upon theology and 
church order, but they really love the Word of God 
and the Christian life, better than anything else ; and 
it was this which, in spite of all differences, opened 
their hearts to receive Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey." 

* It appeared originally in The Christian, of Boston, United 
States, America ; and was reprinted Ln England, in The Rock, 



310 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN, 

On their return from the North they were besought 
to hold farewell meetings in some of the places where 
they had laboured ; and these meetings, especially in 
Aberdeen and Inverness, were scenes which will never 
be forgotten. 

At a year's distance the fruits of that great awaken- 
ing are gloriously apparent. Evangelistic services 
are held by the converts of this revival, all over the 
north of Scotland ; and, by this means, the labours of 
Messrs. Moody and Sankey are multiplied a hundred- 
fold. 



3" 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE WORK OF GRACE IN IRELAND. — BELFAST 
LONDONDERRY; DUBLIN. 

FROM among the many invitations that pressed 
upon him, Mr. Moody next chose to visit the 
cities of Belfast, Londonderry, and Dublin. 

On Sabbath morning, the 6th of September, 
the evangelists held their first meeting in Belfast, 
at Dougal Square Chapel, at eight o'clock in the 
morning. Long before the hour the place was 
crowded with Christian workers, to whom it was 
announced the address would be given. The second 
meeting, at eleven o'clock, was held in a larger church ; 
while the evening meeting was adjourned to the 
largest place of worship in Belfast, capable of hold- 
ing about two thousand people ; but even here, not 
above one-fourth of the persons who came were able 
to obtain admission. Thus, at the outset, the work 
of the Lord in Ireland was marked with distinguished 
promise of success. 

On Monday, a daily noon prayer-meeting was 
commenced ; which also, next day, had to be adjourned 
to a more capacious building, holding about fourteen 



312 MOODY AND SANKEY IN IRELAND. 

hundred people. This noon prayer-meeting was so 
largely attended, and so greatly blessed, that, in 
speaking of it, one of the Belfast brethren declares 
it to have been " the centre of the whole movement." 

The crowds which pressed upon his ministry com- 
pelled Mr. Moody at once to divide his audience; 
and here, as in Scotland, men's meetings, women's 
meetings, young men's meetings, working women's 
meetings, and other special services, were held ; all 
of them attended by anxious crowds of listeners ; 
and, almost in every instance, several hundred earnest 
inquirers remaining for personal instruction. But 
even this plan did not meet the convenience of his 
would-be hearers: then two meetings were held at 
once, but they were no less crowded ; and it be- 
came necessary, on the Sabbath, to preach in the 
open air. 

After one of these great open-air meetings, held 
on the 27th of September, the whole of the following 
afternoon and evening were occupied as an inquiry- 
meeting ; at which Mr. Moody and other Christian 
workers were employed from two till ten o'clock, 
in pointing the throng of anxious inquirers to the 
" Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the 
world." 

On one occasion, two hundred young men, the 
very flower of Belfast, gave themselves to Christ. 
Still the interest increased. A service was held, one 
night, for persons who had not hitherto heard 
Mr. Moody ; to which admission was had by ticket. 
For these tickets there were no less than three 
thousand applications. 



THE WORK IN BELFAST. 313 

The great revival in 1859 is still fresh in the 
memory of Christians in Ireland ; but the awakening 
under the labours of the American evangelists is 
counted by them as the most remarkable of any 
they have ever experienced. 

Mr. Moody always insists on quietness and order. 
None of those wild excitements, so frequently seen 
at such seasons, have ever appeared in connection 
with him ; and this fact was noted as being in striking 
contrast with the revival of 1859. 

One of the Sabbath evening meetings, exclusively 
for men, Mr. Moody declared to be, in his judgment, 
the most remarkable of any he had yet held in 
Europe. On the following Monday evening, at the 
close of his address, all who had recently been found 
by the Good Shepherd, as well as those who desired 
to be found by Him, were requested to retire to the 
adjoining lecture-room ; to which invitation some six 
hundred men responded. These were again sifted by 
requesting those only who were deeply anxious to be 
saved, to adjourn to another room. Of these there 
were nearly three hundred. Then, after conversation 
and prayer, he invited all to rise who felt that they 
could, then and J:here, accept Jesus as their Saviour ; 
and the whole company, except twenty or thirty, 
stood up to profess their faith. 

The great mass meeting in the open air, on the 
8th of October, was looked forward to with especial 
interest. Prayers were offered for its success in every 
particular ; even that the Lord would give fine weather 
for the occasion. 

The day was beautiful. The various railway com- 
14* 



3 H MOODY AND SAN KEY IN IRELAND. 

panies ran special trains in connection with the 
meeting; and so large did the faith of the Irish 
brethren become, that they actually set out with the 
purpose of calling together an assembly of a hundred 
thousand people. " We want all Ireland for Christ," 
said they. 

LONDONDERRY. 

From the nth to the 15th of October, Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey laboured in . Londonderry, to 
which they had been invited some months before by 
a committee of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. In this place they were cordially received by 
ministers of all denominations ; and all the churches 
were placed at Mr. Moody's disposal during his stay. 
The first Presbyterian Church, being the largest, was 
the one where the meetings were chiefly held ; and 
here, as elsewhere, they resulted in the awakening 
of multitudes of sinners, and the encouragement of 
the ministers and the churches. 

On the 15th they returned to Belfast, to hold their 
farewell services. The noonday prayer-meeting on 
this day was exclusively for sinners anxious to be 
saved. The admission was by tickets, which could be 
obtained on personal application only ; but even with 
all these restrictions, about twenty-four hundred per- 
sons were admitted ; and Mr. Moody addressed them 
in a manner so earnest and tender, that his words 
seemed to have come from heaven. This was the 
largest inquiry-meeting which he, or any of his 
brethren, had ever seen. 

The meeting in the evening was for the young 



FAREWELL TO BELFAST. 315 

converts. Admission was again strictly by tickets, 
which were only given on personal application. Two 
thousand one hundred and fifty converts' tickets were 
given ; and the congregation was made up to three 
thousand by ministers and Christian workers. 

Mr. Moody's farewell address was from Romans 
xiv. 4 : " God is able to make him stand." During 
the service, Mr. Sankey sang a hymn which had 
been composed by a dying youth in Belfast, 
beginning — 

" Is there room ? They say there is room." 

The depth of spiritual interest which marked this 
concluding service, no words are adequate to describe. 
The joy of the speaker may be imagined, as he stood 
before this multitude of converts — a great harvest of 
souls gathered in in five short weeks. But who can 
picture, even to himself, the feelings of this grateful 
and affectionate congregation, when the man who 
had led them to Christ, in closing his last counsels, 
said to them, in a voice trembling with emotion ; — 
" Good-night. We shall meet in the morning when 
the shadows flee away " ! 

DUBLIN. 
The brethren in Dublin had long been looking 
for the coming of the American evangelists, whose 
course had been marked by such a wonderful 
succession of blessings. As early as the previous 
May, Mr. Moody had promised a visit to the. Irish 
capital. But, before he actually appointed his 
meetings there, he took council with the brethren, 



316 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN IRELAND. 



concerning- a place in which to hold them. The 
largest churches and halls had everywhere been far 
too small for the congregations ; and this had affected 
him very painfully. He therefore made it a condition 
of his coming to Dublin, that the Exhibition Palace 
should be engaged for his meetings. 

This is a magnificent structure, built some years 
ago by subscription, with a view to provide a place of 
innocent recreation ; which, it was hoped, would also 
be a great preventive of evil, if not a means of grace. 
In this respect, however, it had proved a mortifying 
failure. 

God has never promised to save sinners by means 
of any sort of amusement. 

But now this splendid structure was destined to 
be the scene of the most precious work of salvation 
ever experienced in Dublin. 

Mr. Moody's condition was met. The Exhibition 
Palace was engaged ; and, on the 24th of October, he 
and his friend Mr. Sankey arrived, to commence their 
work. Their way had been prepared by months of 
earnest supplication, not only > in meetings appointed 
for that purpose, and in the congregations on the 
Sabbath, but also at the family altars in hundreds of 
Christian homes : and in order that Dublin might 
understand what was to be hoped for, Mr. Smithson, 
of the Young Men's Christian Association, prepared 
a sketch of the revival in Scotland, which, in the 
form of a tract, was distributed to the number of 
fifty thousand copies. 

Out of a population of two hundred and fifty thou- 
sand, there are only about forty thousand Protestants 



CATHOLIC CONVERTS. 317 

in Dublin ; but the line of separation between Pro- 
testants and Papists was continually crossed and 
re-crossed ; until Cardinal Cullen, seeing his flock 
straying, in such great numbers, into this heretical 
pasture, published an interdict forbidding such con- 
duct. This, however, was far less effective than 
that prelate could have desired. The work of grace 
went on in Catholic, as well as in Protestant families. 
One instance is mentioned where a lady met seven 
young girls at an inquiry-meeting, five of whom had 
been brought up in the Roman Catholic Church. 
Singularly enough, the very first convert in this 
revival was a young man who had been brought up 
in the Romish faith. 

Such events as these, which were constantly occur- 
ring, did not produce any unusual impression upon 
Mr. Moody's mind. He never could see any reason 
why a Roman Catholic should be converted to Christ 
in a different manner from a Protestant. Neither 
Protestantism on the one hand, nor Roman Catho- 
licism on the other, was a condition of salvation ; and 
he preached Christ to them alike — feeling that they 
all were sinners, and alike in danger of perdition: 
in precisely the same manner he taught them all to 
humble themselves before God, confess their sins, give 
their hearts to the Saviour, and believe unto eternal 
life. He only knew them as so many souls to be 
saved. 

At one time, when some of the brethren were 
speaking, with glad surprise, of the many Roman 
Catholic converts, Mr. Moody interposed the remark : 

"Why should we distinguish between different 



318 MOODY AND SANKEY IN IRELAND. 

kinds of converts ? Are we not all one in Christ ? " 
On this account, no doubt, it was that the Catho- 
lics in Dublin manifested so little hostility towards 
Mr. Moody and his work. He was a good Protestant, 
of course; but still more was he a Christian. 

The Nation, a Fenian newspaper, in an article on 
the revival, says :— 

" With much regret we notice indications of an attempt to 
excite the hostility of our Catholic population against the 
religious services conducted by some Protestant missionaries 
from America. We trust we shall not appeal in vain to the 
spirit of tolerance, of honourable fair play, of respect of con- 
science in the breasts of Irish Catholics, when we call upon 
them to crush the slightest attempt at offensive demonstration 
against the religious exercises which some sections of the 
Protestant community are holding, under the auspices of the 
gentlemen we refer to. We Catholics should ever discriminate 
between the Protestantism of sincere men devoted to their own 
convictions, but seeking no unjust interference with ours, and 
the wretched kind of Protestantism which consists in wanton 
insult and aggression upon the Catholic poor. For this latter 
warfare on our homes and altars, we shall always have scorn 
and reprobation ; for the former, we should always have re- 
spectful sentiments. Let Messrs. Moody and Sankey do all 
they can to make Protestants earnest in religion. Let us 
Catholics daily devote ourselves more and more energetically 
to the practical duties of our holy faith ; and let us all, 
Protestant and Catholic, work and pray to keep the teachings 
and theories of the Huxleys and the Tyndalls far from the 
shores of Ireland." 

The FreematCs Journal, another Catholic paper, 
noticed the movement in a less friendly manner, 
criticising Mr. Moody for " being too intimate with 
the Heavenly Host" ; for "roaring too loudly and too 
furiously " ; for " appealing to the imagination, and 



SUCCESSFUL SINGING. 319 

speaking in a noisy, rhapsodical, haphazard style " ; 
but saying nothing to excite religious prejudices. 

In an article entitled the "New Evangel," this 
paper did, indeed, attempt to make sport of Mr. 
Moody; but afterwards a member of its staff was 
converted in his meetings, and then it published fair 
articles upon the movement. 

Mr. Sankey was in high favour with the Irish 
people. The sweetness and enthusiasm of his singing 
went straight to their hearts. In Dublin, more than 
anywhere else, instances of awakening and conversion 
under his singing were noticed. 

A Dublin correspondent of the London Times says: 
— " There was no attempt made to win proselytes for 
any particular church, and not the faintest allusion to 
any of the distinctive characteristics of sects and 
creeds. The result was that Protestants and Roman 
Catholics, Jews, Presbyterians, Methodists, Moravians, 
Arians, and Quakers were all mingled in the great 
assembly, and all seemed equally impressed. The 
presence of over seven hundred and fifty clergy- 
men of various communions, in answer to the invita- 
tion of the committee who had taken charge of the 
work, is a significant proof of the success of the 
movement. Let those who think they can do so, 
account for the movement, and explain what it is 
which brought together such immense congregations 
every day for nearly six weeks, and produced such 
extraordinary effects ? The fact itself is memorable 
and suggestive." 

Mr. Moody's Bible-readings were most highly 
valued. They were held, as usual, in the afternoon ; 



32© MOODY AND SANKEY IN IRELAND. 

and were largely attended even by the busiest busi- 
ness men. 

Among other remarkable meetings held in Dub- 
lin, was one for the soldiers of the garrison at 
Curragh ; who came in large numbers, with many of 
the under-officers, to take part in the re-union at 
the Metropolitan Hall. Mr. Moody went straight to 
their hearts, drawing largely from his own experience 
in the Christian Commission during the Civil War in 
America, and making the men feel that he was almost 
a comrade ; certainly a warm-hearted friend. His 
charming stories softened their hearts ; and many 
of the veterans, who had often looked death in the 
face, wept like children while he spoke to them of 
the love and service they owed to Christ, the Captain 
of their salvation. 

In the Great Exhibition Palace there was no lack 
of room. Mr. Moody insisted that it should also be 
made comfortably warm. " Let us get all the diffi- 
culties out of the way," said he. " It will not be 
easy to save these people while they are shivering 
with cold." 

The powerful effects of the preaching and singing 
may best be understood from the fact that, out of 
the great congregations, sometimes as many as seven 
hundred inquirers remained for personal conversation ; 
and these meetings, solemn and impressive beyond 
description, were often held till eleven o'clock at night. 

It was not found necessary to preach those ser- 
mons which are generally used as a preparation for 
revival. The revival commenced immediately. Dub- 
lin had been waiting to hear the Gospel preached; 



BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND. 321 

and its people, by crowds, when they heard it, 
eagerly pressed into the kingdom of Christ. From 
all over the island, multitudes came up to attend 
the meetings ; many of whom went home happy in the 
love of Christ. One woman came a hundred miles 
to hear Mr. Moody preach, but was too late to obtain 
admission. The next day, however, she read a 
report of his sermon in a morning paper, and it was 
blessed to her salvation. One new convert wrote a 
letter to a lady friend, and this letter was the means 
of her conversion. Then she read it to her mother, 
who also was led to the Saviour : and afterwards her 
father and her brothers, all by reading the same letter, 
were induced to give their hearts to Christ. 

The children's meetings which were held in the 
Exhibition Palace, were no less interesting than the 
other services. The little people came, not only from 
Dublin, but also by extra trains from Kingstown, 
Stillorgan, and other towns, and listened to the singing 
and speaking with faces beaming with delight. 

There is in Dublin an organized society of atheists, 
who determined to try their hand at opposing Mr. 
Moody in a very cunning and mischievous way. 
Scattering themselves about in the hall during the 
preaching, they joined the crowds who, at the close, 
sought the inquiry rooms ; and there, on pretence of 
seeking the light, attempted to turn these services 
into a debate, and to lead the anxious inquirers away 
from Christ, instead of to Him. Their scheme, how- 
ever, was immediately discovered, and they were 
admitted to the inquiry room no more; unless they 
came, as some afterwards did, honestly asking what 



323 MOODY AND SANKEY IN IRELAND. 

they must do to be saved. After this the greatest 
care was taken in the instruction of inquirers. They 
were organized into classes : Christian workers 
were appointed; women to converse with women, 
and men with men. No debate nor useless con- 
versation were allowed ; and the business of pointing 
souls to Christ went on in a correct and systematic 
manner. 

One of the pastors found a poor woman with 
a little child in her arms, whose wretched and 
poverty-stricken appearance awakened his deepest 
sympathy ; and who, upon his inquiring into her 
condition, said : " I am a convert. I was converted 
while Mr. Sankey was singing ' Jesus of Nazareth 
passeth by.' " While the minister was considering 
under whose care he should place this person, a 
lady came forward and said, " She is a good case. 
I know her. She is under my care. Give her a 
convert's ticket, if you please." This was another 
converted Roman Catholic. 

The finances of the Dublin revival are worthy 
of special attention. Some days before Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey arrived, three or four gentle- 
men met at the office of Mr. David Drummond ; 
and, after consultation and prayer, decided to send 
out a circular, saying that the American evangelists 
were coming ; that the Great Exhibition Palace had 
been engaged for them ; and that money would be 
wanted to meet the large expenses attendant upon 
the services. It was determined to ask for the sum 
of ^1500; and circulars to this purpose were sent 
out to five or six thousand of the leading citizens of 



FINANCES OF THE DUBLIN REVIVAL. 323 

Dublin. Only two instances of personal solicitation 
are mentioned*; but the money came in so fast, that 
Mr. Drummond, who was the treasurer, was obliged to 
employ a clerk to keep the record. Old ladies would 
come in Bath chairs to bring half a crown. People 
in high life came in carriages, bringing cheques or 
gold. Even the poor desired to have some share 
in the work, and gave their pennies and half-pence. 
By some means the subscription became known to 
the prisoners in a certain gaol in the south of 
Ireland ; and they, regretting their inability to be 
present, sent their good wishes, and a little collection 
which had been raised among them, to the amount 
of twenty-five shillings. From Protestants and 
Papists, masters and servants, the contributions poured 
in. No sum larger than ^30 was received. A large 
part of the money was in silver and copper; but 
the full amount required was raised. 

Having now come so near to the question of the 
support of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, the readers 
of this work will naturally desire to know some- 
thing on that interesting topic. Here let it be said, 
once for all, that these brethren do not work for pay. 
They have never sought an invitation ; never stipu- 
lated for any sum of money to be given them, either for 
their services or expenses. In every instance, Mr. 
Moody determined the question of going to, or passing 
by, a place, under the direction, as he believed, of the 
Spirit of God. The committees which invited him 
have held the matter of finance entirely in their own 
hands. They have raised the money as they pleased, 
and given him such sums as they judged suitable; 



324 MOODY AND SANKEY IN IRELAND. 

■* 

these he has shared with Mr. Sankey ; and thus they 
have laboured together, taking what God sent them — 
which in many instances has been very little, and in no 
case very much. At Dublin the committee consulted 
together, and determined to give Mr. Moody a sum of 
money which, they afterwards were glad to learn, was 
in excess of what he had received hitherto : but even 
upon the proportion of this generous gift, the American 
evangelists will never become rich out of their present 
employment. Still in the secular press, and in the 
gossip of the streets and offices, these men are ac- 
cused, by those who know nothing of them, of mer- 
cenary motives in their great work for Christ. 

Only a little while ago a certain newspaper sug- 
gested that they were an advance-guard sent over by 
Barnum ; and that the advertising scheme, no doubt, 
would presently appear. Another equally discerning 
party had heard of Mr. Moody's little device for set- 
ting children to study the Bible ; which he calls "the 
Gospel clock." It consists of a grouping of twelve 
texts of Scripture in a circle, containing respectively, 
the same numbers of words as those which mark the 
hours upon a dial. A great many of these Gospel 
clock-faces have been arranged by the little people, 
to their no small profit and delight. But the indi- 
vidual referred to saw in it a suggestion of a different 
character. " I have it at last," said he : " Moody is 
a clock-maker in America, and this is the beginning 
of a system of advertising, by which he means to 
sell his wares." 

In like manner Mr. Sankey has been assailed as 
an agent for the sale of that peculiar make of harmo- 



SPONTANEOUS REVIVALS. 325 



mums which he uses to accompany his singing. But 
it is scarcely needful to say that no such charge can 
be properly made against him. 

So mightily grew the word and work in Dublin 
that the evangelistic committee were forced to appoint 
a secretary to take charge of the applications for Chris- 
tian workers, with which they were constantly besieged. 
Meetings were called together with the greatest ease, 
all over the north of Ireland. It was only necessary 
to announce a revival service, with perhaps a mention 
of the name of Mr. Moody or Mr. Sankey, or of the 
great revival in Dublin ; and the people, for miles 
around, would come together, not knowing who were 
to speak, or whether there were to be any speakers at 
all. If some of the men were present who had been 
to the Dublin meetings, the crowd of listeners were 
satisfied with the simplest account of their experience 
and observation. If no such persons appeared, per- 
haps somebody had one of Mr. Sankey's hymn books, 
from which he could sing ; and the song would be 
blessed to the awakening of sinners and the comfort 
of believers. From the smallest sowing of these seeds 
of grace, great harvests were gathered, all over the 
northern portion of the island. And still the work 
continues with such a power of blessing, that the 
brethren in Dublin almost begin to hope that all 
Ireland at last is to be saved. 

The reason of all this is to be found, not wholly in the 
labours of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, but also in the 
earnest prayer which, for six months previous to their 
coming, had been offered for God's blessing upon 
their work. From March to October a daily prayer- 



326 MOODY AND SANKEY IN IRELAAD. 

meeting was held, to implore the descent of the 
Holy Spirit upon Ireland. The brethren there have 
received far more than they dared to ask ; and still 
the rain of grace comes down, which maketh glad 
the valleys of the Lord. 

The labours of the evangelists, which continued from 
the 24th of October till the 29th of November, closed 
with a three days' convention ; attended by Christian 
workers and others from all parts of Ireland ; and by 
about eight hundred ministers of all evangelical 
denominations. Mr. Moody himself went to the 
Archbishop of Dublin, and desired his assistance 
at this convention. He however refused to come, 
because of certain ecclesiastical difficulties ; and so 
the convention went on without him. This must 
not be taken to signify that the Episcopal clergy 
refused to give their hands to the brethren from 
America. In Ireland especially, a goodly number 
of these servants of God not only listened to 
Mr. Moody's preaching, and were delighted by 
it, but learned many valuable lessons from him, 
which they have put to good use among their 
own congregations. His inquiry meetings at first 
were looked upon with suspicion; but now, in the 
Episcopal and Presbyterian churches of Great Britain 
and Ireland, this method of coming to close quarters 
is widely used, with very beneficial effect. 

In many instances the zeal of the people outran 
that of their pastors. One lady in the country paid 
the expenses of several poor clergymen, and sent 
them to the Dublin convention. A minister from a 
distance, who was known to be opposed to such 



MR. MOODY S FAREWELL SERMONS. 327 

extra means of grace, was met by an acquaintance 
who saluted him as follows : — 

" What ! Mr. , are you here ? " 

"Yes," was the reply. "I was forced to come. 
My people would not let me stay away. It was, 
either come to the convention, or leave the parish." 

Such cases, however, were rare. For the most part 
the ministers co-operated heartily in the movement ; 
and the blessing of God upon their congregations 
has been one part of their reward. 

The meeting for converts, on the second day of 
the great convention, called together two thousand 
persons, who, during the six months previous, had 
given their hearts to Christ. Mr. Moody spoke to 
them from Rom. xiv. 4 : " Who art thou that judgest 
another man's servant ? To his own master he 
standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up : for 
God is able to make him stand." 

Mr. Moody's farewell addresses, like all his other dis- 
courses, are full of the words of Scripture, but almost 
empty of himself. The great temptation to deal in 
personal matters at such a time, with hundreds and 
thousands of people before him whom he had led to 
the Saviour, was always steadily resisted. He did 
not play upon their sympathies, but made the most 
of his last hour with them to impress yet once more 
upon their hearts the great lesson, that they were 
saved by faith in Christ. Christ was everything; 
the minister was nothing. The Word of God was 
everything ; the words of the speaker were nothing. 

Doubtless Mr. Moody's great and affectionate nature 
was thrilled to its centre with brotherly and Christian 



328 MOODY AND SANKEY IN IRELAND. 

tenderness and love towards those souls whom he had 
been the means of saving. But now, as he bids them 
good-bye, he does not tell them that he loves them, 
but that Christ loves them. He does not tell them 
to remember him, but to remember the Lord and 
their duty. 

From Dublin, the brethren returned again to Eng- 
land, leaving behind them thousands of grateful and 
happy souls, who will never cease to thank God for 
their coming ; and laden with more heart-felt bene- 
dictions than ever went out of Ireland with any two 
men before* 



339 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RETURN TO ENGLAND. — MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, 
BIRMINGHAM, LIVERPOOL. 

THE return of the evangelists had been awaited 
with the deepest interest, and at the places 
where they were expected, special services of prayer 
had been held, for months together, in the hope that 
the same baptism of power, which had accompanied 
them through Scotland and Ireland, might also come 
with them to the chief cities of England. 

During the whole of the last week in November, 
the committee at Manchester were busy with pre- 
parations for the arrival of Messrs. Moody and Sankey. 
As the time of their coming drew near the interest 
increased, until it became intense ; and among other 
proofs of the Divine source of this feeling on the part 
of Christians, was the fact that believers of various 
sects and orders shared in it alike. This spirit 
of union found expression in a united communion 
service on Sunday, the 2nd of December: admission 
was by tickets ; and so great a number of these 
were issued, that it was found necessary to divide the 
congregation between the. two largest chapels in the 
town. During the first week the omens were good. 
i5 



330 MOODY AND SANKKY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

Large congregations greeted the speaker and singer, 
especially at the noon prayer-meetings, and the after- 
noon service for women. 

The famous Free Trade Hall was taken for the 
noon meetings, which were attended by earnest audi- 
ences of from two to three thousand : a fact which 
in a busy, manufacturing city like Manchester, can 
only be accounted for on the theory of the general 
outpouring of the Spirit of God. The largest chapels 
were used for other services, but none were able to 
contain the crowds which flocked to attend them. 
Overflow meetings were in order, but it was quite 
impossible to bring the masses of would-be hearers all 
under the preaching of the Word at any given time. 

The general interest expressed in the revival by 
all nonconformist ministers, and the harmony with 
which they laboured together, made the absence of 
the Episcopal clergy all the more noticeable ; and 
before the end of the first week, Mr. Moody, who 
always desires the union of all who love our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ in the good work to which 
he has devoted his life, caused the following circular 
to be issued : — 

" Having come to Manchester with my friend Mr. Sankey, for 
the month of December, with the one object of preaching Christ, 
it has been matter of disappointment that not more clergymen 
of the Church of England have attended our meetings. As 
God has granted large blessings where unity has prevailed, we 
trust you will join in seeking a blessing for Manchester. 

"Manchester, " D. L. MOODY. 

' ' 4th December, 1 8 74. ' ' 

So rapidly did the interest extend, that, within a 



THE FIRE OF THE LORD DESCENDING. 331 

week, it was said, " Manchester is now on fire. The 
most difficult of all English cities to kindle by any- 
thing but politics, is now fairly ablaze ; and the 
flames are breaking out in all directions." 

Nothing was more striking than Mr. Moody's 
running commentaries on. the Scriptures : the prac- 
tical manner in which he dealt with Bible doctrines 
opened the way at once to the favour of this practical 
people. On two successive evenings, before immense 
congregations in the Free Trade Hall, Mr. Moody 
delivered his famous discourses on Heaven ; which he 
followed up the next night, with his terrible sermon 
on Hell. Those who heard them will not soon forget 
the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. They 
could almost feel the mighty rushing wind, as at 
Pentecost, shaking the place where they were sitting ; 
and when the exhortation was urged upon sinners to 
flee from the wrath to come, large numbers of anxious 
persons pressed to the inquiry room, to be instructed 
personally about the question of their eternal fate. 

Hitherto the revivals under the labours of Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey had been of a joyful type ; but 
at Manchester, from the first, a deep solemnity per- 
vaded the meetings. Mr. Moody put forth no effort 
to startle the imagination of his congregations, but 
sought in the simplest and most straightforward man- 
ner to lead their minds to Christ. 

A writer, in speaking of the appearance of the 
assemblies under his sermons, says : " If you watch 
the audience, you can see faces change expression. 
You may read there shame, contrition, confession, 
hope, faith, peace, as the case may be. The truth 



332 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

comes home. There is a power. No man can do it. 
It is God's power. It is the Lord's doing." 

The meetings in the Free Trade Hail on Sunday 
mornings, at eight o'clock, resulted in such an awaken- 
ing among believers as had not been witnessed in 
Manchester for many a year. At that early hour, in 
the depth of winter, the great hall was crowded 
to excess with persons, most of whom had hitherto 
been careless about the work of the Lord ; but who 
now were eager to learn the way in which they might 
do something for Him, who had done so much for 
them. 

A scheme was organized at the suggestion of Mr. 
Reginald Radcliffe of Liverpool, by which every house 
in the city was to be visited. Hundreds of Christian 
men and women devoted themselves ,to this work ; 
and their reports at the noon prayer-meeting con- 
stituted a feature of great impressiveness and value. 
The city was divided into fifty districts, each of 
which was placed under the charge of a superinten- 
dent, with a sufficient number of visitors to reach 
every house within its limits. A leaflet was pre- 
pared, containing the hymn "Jesus of Nazareth 
passeth by," and a short address by Mr. Moody. 
But this paper was to be used simply as an intro- 
duction, and to enable the visitor to come more easily 
to the question of personal religion. 

The growing union among believers of various 
names became so notable, that a strong desire 
sprang up for its consolidation into some form by 
which it might become a permanent force and 
blessing. With this view, a meeting was held on 



MANCHESTER Y. M. C. A. 333 

one of the last evenings of Mr. Moody's visit, on 
behalf of the Young Men's Christian Association ; 
at which the chairman intimated that it was con- 
templated to buy the old Museum and fit it up 
as the head-quarters of the Association. This Museum 
was a vacant building, situated near the Free 
Trade Hall, whose former use is indicated by its 
name. On this occasion Mr. Moody gave a spirited 
address, in which he spoke of the opportunities and 
duties of the young men of Manchester ; and, at 
the close a collection was made, beginning with 
a gift from the chairman of ^"iooo. Over ^30,000 
was ultimately raised, being the full amount required 
for purchasing and fitting up the building. 

The spirit of consecration, so widely prevalent, 
led to special efforts to reach the neglected classes 
of society. One branch of this work was a mission 
among the mill girls, many of whom w r ere brought 
to Christ It is sometimes said, "A girl cannot 
be good in a mill " : but one of these converts, as 
if to prove the error of this opinion, having first given 
her heart to the Saviour, spoke of Him to her com- 
panions, ten of whom were converted. 

A young man in a large warehouse, who had 
been utterly regardless of Divine things, went to a 
meeting just to see what was going on ; but when he 
heard Mr. Moody speak, he was almost struck dumb 
with amazement and alarm. Before long, his heart 
was quite melted. He went into the inquiry room, 
where a Christian minister pointed him to Christ ; 
and having accepted the offer of salvation, he went 
his way rejoicing. In the warehouse where he was 



334 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

employed there were a large number of young men, to 
whom, in a frank and kindly manner, he told of the 
great change he had experienced. By his invitation 
several of them went to a meeting with him, and within 
three days eleven of the number were brought to 
Christ. 

At one of the meetings in the Free Trade Hall 
a workman was brought under deep conviction by 
the singing of the hymn " Safe in the arms of Jesus." 
Indeed, the singing was often blessed to .such results. 

Requests for prayer at the noon meeting became 
so numerous that it was impossible to read them 
all, even in the most condensed form in which 
it was possible to arrange them. It was presumed 
that the Lord knew all about the people who desired 
the prayers of the congregation, and the petitions 
went up en masse, to which there seemed to be no 
lack of answers. Thanksgivings, also, were frequent. 
On one occassion, a minister returned thanks for the 
conversion of a friend for whom prayers had been 
offered twenty-five years ; also for the salvation of 
several persons in his own congregation; and for 
the dispelling of the doubts of a young man who had 
travelled a hundred and fifty miles to attend the 
Manchester meetings. 

On the same occasion, another minister rose to 
say he had never met with so much Scriptural teach- 
ing concerning the way of salvation as in Mr. 
Moody's addresses. Not only the ministers, but the 
common people as well, became impressed with a 
new understanding of the Word, and how to use it ; 
even young boys were making themselves useful by 



BLESSINGS ON THE MINISTRY. 335 



Bible readings in the cottages, where many persons 
would assemble to listen. 

In speaking of the definite results of the work, 
which closed on the last day of 1874, one writer 
says: "I may be forgiven if I begin with the 
ministers of Manchester. If one class has been 
blessed more than another during- these four weeks 
past, it has been the regular Christian ministry. I 
am sure I speak the sentiments of all my brethren 
who have thrown themselves heart and soul into the 
movement, when I say, that we have received nothing 
less than a fresh baptism of the Holy Ghost. If our 
dear brother, Mr. Moody, had accomplished nothing 
other than the awakening of the ministers of this 
great centre of population, his visit would not have 
been in vain. Next to the Christian ministry, I 
believe the great army of Christian workers have 
shared most largely in the blessing. Above all, 
drones have been rebuked, and recruits in large num- 
bers have enlisted in the name of our Lord and King. 
The afternoon Bible readings have been greatly 
relished by thousands. At this, Mr. Moody surprised 
and delighted many of us ministers, by -his wonderful 
acquaintance with the Word of God. He proved 
himself to be a very giant in Bible knowledge ; and I 
have reason to believe that, in hundreds of cases, his 
immense audiences went home with souls hungering 
after righteousness, and determined to be better 
acquainted with the Word of Life." 

The blessing received by the young men of Man- 
chester, is indicated by the rise of the Young Men's 
Christian Association into increased activity; the 



336 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

purchase of the old Museum for its use, as above 
mentioned ; and the addition of nearly five hundred 
names to the roll of its active members. 

Sheffield. 

At nine o'clock on the last night of 1874, Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey commenced their two weeks' 
session in Sheffield. The service was held in the 
Albert Hall, which was crowded to excess ; many 
having stood before the doors an hour before they 
were opened, in order to make sure of admittance. 
A large number of ministers occupied the platform 
The last three hours of the old year were spent in 
earnest exhortation by Mr. Moody ; tender and im- 
pressive singing by Mr. Sankey; and solemn and 
silent prayer by the whole congregation. 

A year of blessing had passed since that wonder- 
ful watchnight in Edinburgh, and a year of blessing 
was opening, in which even greater works were to be 
done. The vicar of Sheffield, with many clergymen 
of the Established Church, and dissenting ministers 
of various denominations, took part in the services of 
the week of prayer which followed. 

It was proposed to divide Sheffield into districts, to 
be visited after the manner adopted at Manchester; 
but on account of the decided opposition of some of 
the Church clergy, who refused to allow their parishes 
to be canvassed in this irregular manner, the scheme 
was dropped. Such proof of a disposition, on the 
part of the managers of the movement, to conciliate 
all parties, and maintain Christian courtesy, checked 



SHEFFIELD. %yr 

the incipient division, and there was afterwards the 
most harmonious union between ministers of all orders, 
which had been seen anywhere in England. On one 
occasion an Independent minister preached to an im- 
mense congregation in the Sheffield parish church ; 
while its rector addressed a great overflow meeting in 
the churchyard. 

Mr. Moody gave some of his Bible readings with 
excellent effect ; and all the services were marked by 
the evident presence of the Divine Spirit, and attended 
by immense congregations. The merits and demerits 
of the evangelists were discussed by excited groups 
at the street corners and other public places. The 
opponents of the movement attributed its success to 
skilful advertising, curiosity, novelty, etc.; but still 
the throng pressed to attend the meetings. 

Sheffield has a population which is difficult to 
arouse, — sturdy, independent, unimpressible, like the 
metal on which they work ; and the success of this 
movement is, therefore, the greater marvel. At first 
there was a feeling of disappointment, both respecting 
Mr. Moody's speaking and Mr. Sankey's singing ; but 
presently Christian people began to look beyond the 
speaker and the singer, and then appeared the real 
power and blessing which accompanied them. The 
Sheffield Christians said, " This is a work of God." 

At one of the noon prayer-meetings a telegram 
was handed in as follows: — "Three men were exe- 
cuted this morning at eight o'clock, at Liverpool. 
They all attributed the crimes for which they suffered 
to the evil influence of drink. Pray for the poor 
drunkards of Liverpool." 
15* 



338 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

One of the preparatory meetings held in view of the 
approaching visit of the brethren from America, was 
blessed in the following singular manner : — An elderly 
man, who had been a devoted Christian, but had 
afterwards backslidden from God, feeling the torments 
of his conscience absolutely unendurable, sought to 
drown them in intoxication. Finding no relief even 
in this, he resolved to bring his life to an end, and 
was proceeding to carry out his design; when, passing 
near the lower Albert Hall, where a children's service 
was in progress, he entered ; listened to the simple 
exercises ; felt once more the love of the tender 
Shepherd ; and at length, after having been almost 
torn to pieces by despair and remorse, came back 
again to Christ, and once more found rest and peace 
in Him." 

Birmingham. 

Birmingham has a population of nearly four hun- 
dred thousand people. It is noted for its intense 
political activity. The independence of its citizens 
has passed into a phrase — "the Birmingham spirit" — 
which, its own people say, may be interpreted to mean 
" every man for himself." It is a great manufactory 
of opinions in politics and religion, as well as of all 
manner of workmanship in brass and iron ; and taking 
everything into account, it was thought that the 
American evangelists would find as much difficulty 
here as in any place which they had visited. But 
from the first, it might be said, the whole city 
was moved and went out to hear them. There were 
such crowds as never greeted a speaker in that town 



SINGLE Y HALL. 339 



before ; save when, on some exciting topic, Mr. Bright, 
Birmingham's distinguished member of Parliament, 
addressed the electors of his borough. 

Early in the winter a meeting of the evangelical 
ministers had been called, at which it was resolved to 
invite Messrs. Moody and Sankey to Birmingham. 

On Sunday, the 17th of January, 1875, they com- 
menced their labours, with a meeting for Christian 
workers. It was held in the Town Hall, which is ca- 
pable of seating five thousand persons. Twice during 
the day this place was densely crowded : and in the 
evening a service was held in Bingley Hall. This hall 
was built for the Birmingham annual cattle show. Its 
interior forms a square of about one hundred yards. 
Its covering consists of five parallel roofs, sustained by 
graceful iron pillars and girders ; the windows are 
skylights ; and at night it is well illuminated by gas. 
Two galleries sweep round the great enclosure, giving, 
with the platform, accommodation for ten or twelve 
thousand persons. But so great was the rush for 
admission that the immense building was thronged 
an hour before the time of service ; and the doors had 
to be closed against thousands upon thousands, — a 
multitude so great that it was estimated to be capable 
of filling the hall two or three times over. 

It would seem that so vast a congregation was 
favourable to the work, which had been greatly 
hindered in other places for want of a suitable 
building ; but, at the close of Mr. Moody's address 
on Monday night, when he asked all those who were' 
not Christians, but were anxious to be saved, to stand 
up, at first no one answered the appeal. " "• 



340 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

"What! " cried Mr. Moody, "is there no sinner in 
this vast assembly who wants to become a Christian?" 
Then a young girl, apparently about sixteen, rose in 
the body of the hall. 

" Thank God, there is one at least ! " he exclaimed 
immediately. Then, as if shamed by the courage of 
the girl, as well as convicted of their danger out of 
Christ, hundreds of men and women in all parts of the 
house rose in rapid succession ; until Mr. Moody cried, 
" Thank the Lord, there are so many I cannot count 
them ; but Jesus knows you every one." The inquirers 
were then desired to repair to the neighbouring 
church, where Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey would 
meet them ; and when they reached the place they 
found the church quite full. 

During their two weeks in Birmingham, Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey were greeted by larger congre- 
gations than ever assembled to hear the Gospel in 
that town before. The whole community seemed to 
be awakened; and not only from the city, but from the 
regions round about, thousands flocked daily to the 
meetings : many from curiosity, some with hearts full 
of opposition, but most of them anxious to hear 
about Christ and heaven. In the counting-houses, 
shops, railway trains, omnibuses, in the streets, — 
everywhere, the topic of conversation was the sayings 
and doings of these two men. 

The newspapers of Birmingham gave kindly notice 
of, and did good service to, the great revival. The 
Morning News says : — 

" The spring-tide of blessing has rolled over Birmingham, and 
risen far above the ordinary high- water mark of years gone by. 



THE BIRMINGHAM CONVENTION. 341 

The fishermen, who have learned the Divine art of catching men, 
instead of toiling all night and taking nothing, have had the fish 
leaping into the Gospel net, as it were, praying to be caught. 
When Bingley Hall began to fill up, it was a grand sight to see 
these rows and rows of people, not drawn out, as on the previous 
Monday, to hear the members of the borough expound their 
political views, but to meet the great sterling question, What shall 
I do to be saved ? . . . When the first meeting on Wednesday 
was closed, it took almost an hour to empty the Hall sufficiently 
to enable Mr. Moody to deal with the inquirers. Mr. Moody's 
Bible readings were here received with especial favour. The same 
topics which had been blessed to the awakening of audiences 
of thousands of people, were here attended with the accustomed 
blessing. At the close of Mr. Moody's Bible reading on the 
blood, he said, ' If you wish to know the secret of our success for 
the last two years, it lies in this : that we have stood fair and 
square on the Bible doctrine of substitution. Ah! that is what 
is needed by a dying world.' " 

At the convention with which the Birmingham 
meetings closed, Mr. Moody himself presided through- 
out the day — which was spent in considering topics of 
practical importance. It was attended by ministers 
from various parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland; 
especially from the cities where the evangelists had 
laboured. The Rev. Mr. Morgan of Edinburgh, the 
Rev. E. N. Keeling of Manchester, the Rev. Mr. Best 
of Dublin, and others, bore testimony to the Divine 
power which had accompanied the efforts of Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey in their respective cities. 

"It has been a year of praise in Scotland," said 
Mr. Morgan. " There has been more heart-singing 
during the last twelve months than for a whole 
generation before. " 

* During the iast two months," said Mr. Keeling, 
"there has been a unity among the Christian 



342 MOODY AND SAKKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



churches of Manchester which six months ago would 
not have been thought possible ; and since Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey left us, we have had even more 
cause to be thankful than during their visit." 

The Rev. Mr. Best said he believed the meetings 
in Dublin were larger than any held elsewhere; people 
were coming from all parts of the provinces, and 
staying in the city for days together, on purpose to 
attend the meetings. Mr. Sankey's hymns were being 
sung all over the country ; and the names of the 
American evangelists would be remembered in con- 
nection with the religious history of Ireland. 

Mr. Sankey conducted a service of praise. 

Mr. Moody gave a lecture on Christian work. 

The third hour was spent in answering the inquiry, 
How to conduct prayer-meetings ? The fourth hour 
was occupied by the Rev. R. W. Dale of Birmingham, 
with an address on " How to reach the masses." The 
exercise known as the "question drawer" was con- 
ducted by Mr. Moody. All sorts of inquiries were 
poured in upon him ; and the prompt and spirited 
answers he gave, marked this as one of the most 
interesting parts of the great convention. Some 
very searching questions were asked ; the inquiry 
meetings in particular were criticised : some of Mr. 
Moody's methods excited opposition ; but, . after 
answering all objections in a skilful and patient 
manner, he gave this excellent advice, — u If things 
do not always please you, don't complain— r/?/jtf 
p'ay ! ,} 

A Christian lady invited one of her High-Church 
neighbours to attend one of Mr. Moody's services. She 



A HAPPY PAIR. 343 



was very anxious about the impression it would make 
upon her mind ; especially such things as standing up 
to be prayed for, going to the inquiry room, and the 
like : but what was her amazement, when the in- 
vitation was given, to see her friend stand up for 
prayers among the very first ! When the meeting 
was over, the High-Church lady said to her friend: "I 
have had an ideal in my mind for years, of what a 
religious service ought to be, but I never have had 
the good fortune to see it till to-night." 

People of ruder tastes were no less benefited. 
The artisans in the manufactories crowded to 
the meetings in large numbers. In one of the 
roughest trades, a man was heard to say; — "A dozen 
men were hit in our shop ; and when Mr. Moody 
held his last all-day meeting for converts, and the 
foreman would not let us off, a good many of us 
laid down our tools, and started for the meeting. We 
were bound to have one last day with Moody and 
Sankey." 

A young lady who had been converted, was sorely 
troubled what to do with her affianced husband ; who 
was a wild young fellow, and quite a hopeless case in 
the way of religious impressions. One evening while 
he was paying her a visit, he noticed that she seemed 
to have something on her mind ; and, on inquiring 
what it was, she told him she had become a Christian, 
and was in great doubt whether she could be happy 
with a man who had no interest in religion. In a 
manner half laughing and half crying, the young man 
relieved her anxiety as follows : — 

" Don't be troubled, Mary j I have been to the 



344 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

meetings too. I went down there the other night 
just to see what the fun was ; and, before I had been 
there long, Mr. Sankey sang something that went 
straight to my heart. So now I am a Christian too ; 
and we will go to heaven together." 

The joyful news was told to the mother of the young 
lady, who came in just then ; but instead of giving 
her approbation, she laughed at the young people for 
spending their time in talking of religion ; saying, as 
they were about to be married soon, they had better 
be giving attention to housekeeping matters, and other 
practical things. But at length the mother was her- 
self brought under deep conviction, which she was 
unable to shake off; and the good work progressing 
in the household, brought several of her children and 
other relatives into the fold of Christ. 

Bingley Hall was Mr. Moody's especial delight. 

" I must say," said he, " I have never enjoyed 
preaching the Gospel more, than since I came to 
Birmingham. We have reached so many people. 
I think, if we could, we would take up Bingley Hall 
and carry it round the world with us." 

The number of those who were blessed of God under 
the labours of the American evangelists in Birming- 
ham, may appear from the fact that at the con- 
verts' meeting, held just before they left, two thou- 
sand persons applied for tickets of admission ; 
giving their names and addresses. About fourteen 
hundred of these professed to have been brought 
to Christ during those two weeks; the other six 
hundred being those who were still inquiring what 
they must do to be saved. These tickets were not 



THE WORK STILL GOING ON. 345 

given out indiscriminately ; but every person who 
applied for one was conversed with by some member 
of the committee ; and one gentleman expresses 
the opinion, from facts which have subsequently 
come to his knowledge, that there were three or four 
hundred other converts and inquirers, who at that 
time hesitated to apply for tickets ; but who after- 
wards gave themselves to the Saviour, and united 
with some branch of His Church. These persons 
were all sent to the care of the pastors to whose 
congregations they properly belonged ; where, in 
one instance at least, they were divided into little 
classes of two or three, and placed under the charge 
of some experienced Christian. 

Since the departure of the ^brethren from America, 
the work has been going on. The following letter 
to one of the pastors gives such an insight into the 
work of grace among a certain class of people, that 
the readers of this volume will be glad to see it 
here, just as the poor girl wrote it; the names only 
being withheld : — 

"Back of 65, E Street. 

"Sir — 

" Im ill and cant cum to tel you how hapy I am so I 
get my dortor to write. Theres a young lady brings tracks to 
our house from your church and hers often beged me to cum to 
church some were but I never went. On Sunday 25 her droped 
on me in high street and tuk me to youre chapel and by youre 
sermon I was just dun up. Wen it was over her cum to me agen 
and axed me to go to tother room and bles her swete face, I 
coud not say no so her tuk me and a young woman cryin near 
too me. After that I cum awa hers cum to our house agen next 
Sunday and i was misrable but did not lik to tel her as I'd got 
three shopmates and my son and dortor there but her axed m« 



346 MOOD Y AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

how I'd liked it so I just up and told her I'd never bin to 
the public all the week and never ment to go agen for i knowd 
you sed it was ronng but her said I must give it up for Christ's 
ak and ax him to help me. Then her spok of Christ's love and 
I axed her to sing the hym we'd had last Sunday but we'd got 
no buk so her sung come home out of Sankeys and red of the 
prodigal son. Then I axed her to pray which her did and I brok 
down then her seemed to give me to God — all tothers cried to. 
I cud not forget it her was the only one calm and I cum to 
chapell agen at night thinkin all time her'd giv me to God so 
in youre fust prayere I just giv myself and felt sur he'd have 
me for her'd told me so as well as you. God will pay you both. 
I've been a awful wicked siner and i feel if he cals me now 
I'll have to tell him I've done nothing for him tho hes done so 
much for me. I am hapy God bles you if I di my dortor will 
send you this. I thort of cuming to tell you. 

"John T ." 

" My father died last weak and was buried on Saturday he 
was so happy. Im cuming to live at my brothers near your 
chapell and have promised our track lady to go to scool on a 
Sunday afternoon to a Bible class at the chapel hers been very 
kind and giv me a Bible and says her wants me to giv meself 
to jesus like father did. I hope you will excuse me havin wrote 
but father told me to thank you. 

"E. T." 

A week or two after, the poor girl wrote again : — 

" Moor Street. 
" Good Sir — 

" i am the dortor of John t who dide tother 

week and wrote to you and as I have giv meself to jesus to I 
thorth i would let you no it was the end of your sermon larst 
Sunday nite mi brother as dun the same i wil tel yon how he's 
ben a Catholick some time now but ever sinse he herd our 
track lady tother week he's ben in troble so he axed me to ax 
her if her woud mind caulin at his house to see him and her 
cum larst wensday and her torked and sung 2 out of her Sankys 
book to him and prayed and I went in then and he sed as how 



LIVERPOOL. 347 



he'd found out as jesus ad dide for him and he knowd he did 
forgiv him and he seamed so appy. * * * 

" Ellen T." 



LIVERPOOL. 

Liverpool was one of the few cities in which Mr. 
Moody was well received on his former visit to 
England ; and his coming again was naturally looked 
forward to with the largest anticipations of blessing. 
No hall being large enough for the purpose, an 
immense, rude structure was built, in a central 
part of the town, called the Victoria Hall, capable 
of holding ten thousand people. The expense of 
this building was met by voluntary contributions. 
No direct solicitation was made ; but a sufficient 
amount for the purpose was sent in, on the simple 
announcement that it would be required. In ad- 
dition, as will appear, another large amount of money 
was given to aid the Young Men's Christian Associ- 
ation, on whose behalf Mr. Moody made a most 
memorable and successful appeal. 

The record of the Liverpool revival is the record 
of those which preceded it ; with the added feature 
of the great Victoria Hall, which was the first place 
erected especially for the revival meetings. 

On his arrival, having refreshed himself with a 
week of rest after his labours in Birmin ;ham, he 
found the great hall in readiness ; and the Young 
Men's Christian Association eager to assist him. At 
the first meeting, which was for Christian workers, 
nearly two-thirds of the great congregation were 
young men. On the very first night, fifty young men 



348 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 



were waiting in the inquiry room, ready to offer 
counsel and encouragement to those who might come 
desiring it ; and throughout the entire month of 
meetings, and no less up to the present time, the 
members of this body, under the leadership of their 
efficient secretary, Mr. Nash, have done good service 
for the Master. 

Among the ministers who heartily co-operated with 
the evangelists, was the Rev. Mr. Aitken, vicar of 
Christ's Church, Liverpool. This gentleman, who, 
for several years, had been a favourite and powerful 
missionary — and who, like his father before him, made 
preaching tours in various parts of England and 
Scotland — was a great reinforcement to the evan- 
gelists in Liverpool, having already rendered good 
service in connection with their meetings in several 
other cities. Even the great Hall was not sufficient 
to contain the vast crowds ; and Mr. Aitken and 
many other ministers of the city were actively 
engaged in the conduct of overflow meetings, four 
or five of which, on some occasions, it was found 
necessary to hold, in order to reach the thousands 
upon thousands who were turned away from the 
great Victoria Hall. 

The noon prayer-meeting, which was already in 
progress now, was thrilled with new life. It was held 
in the great Hall, and sometimes attended by as 
many as six thousand persons. Eighteen services 
a week were held in the Victoria Hall ; and a large 
building in the neighbourhood, formerly used for a 
circus, was fitted up for the use of the overflow 
meetings* 



LIVERPOOL. 349 



Large numbers of clergymen were constantly in 
attendance from other places in which the evan- 
gelists had laboured ; bringing tidings of the good 
work which was still going on ; and sometimes 
accompanied by their unconverted friends, who had 
come by sea or land, to share in the great blessing 
which was now pouring down upon Liverpool. A 
gentleman from Dublin told of the conversion of 
a Roman Catholic priest, in the Dublin Exhibition 
Palace, during the singing of the hymn, — "Jesus the 
water of life will give." 

The meetings in Dublin were reported as in success- 
ful progress; sometimes attended by six or eight thou- 
sand people : one-fourth of the whole being Roman 
Catholics ; while in the inquiry room there were more 
Roman Catholics than of any other denomination. 

The Gospel was not only preached in the halls and 
churches of Liverpool, but was carried into the streets 
and lanes of the city, and offered to the multitudes 
who, by sin, or poverty, or both, were kept from 
the ordinary means of grace. One Sunday afternoon, 
some young men went into a vacant stable, where 
they found a number of carters; to whom they spoke 
of the love of Christ, and whom they organized into 
a Bible-class. This simple beginning rapidly attained 
the size of a prosperous mission work. One of the 
carters who was converted, interested himself to 
secure the formation of a committee of working 
carters ; most of whom had been converted at the 
Victoria Hall services ; and meetings for this class 
of persons were held in the circus above mentioned, 
with an average attendance of about three hundred. 



350 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

The sailors also had a night for them. Separate 
meetings were also arranged for the policemen, the 
boys in the ship-building yards, etc., thus taking ac- 
count of the special fellowship of the trades, and 
bringing it into the service of Christ. 

The elegant and commodious building now in 
process of erection for the Liverpool Young Men's 
Christian Association owes its completion, in large 
measure, to the interest which Mr. Moody always 
takes in young men. His appeal on its behalf was 
regarded as a masterpiece of solid sense and practical 
argument ; some of the merchants and business men 
who listened to it, declared it would have done 
honour to the most eminent financier in England. 
From the Victoria Hall, where the address was 
given, the audience adjourned to the new premises 
ot the Association. After prayer for God's blessing 
upon the new building and its uses, a memorial stone 
was laid by Mr. Moody ; who made use of a silver 
trowel, presented to him for that purpose by the 
President of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
The block bears this inscription : 

"This memorial stone was laid by D. L. Moody 
of Chicago, 2nd March 1875." 

During the month at Liverpool the number of 
persons converted and awakened must have been 
numbered by thousands. The inquiry rooms were 
crowded throughout ; and though no definite figures 
can be given, this was doubtless one of the most 
blessed harvest times of all their two years in Great 
Britain. 

The following instance of the conversion of a 



CONVERSION OF A COMIC SINGER. 351 



comic singer is related by Mr. Drummond : — This 
man was coming upon the stage one evening to sing 
a comic song, when a verse of a Sunday-school 
hymn which he had learned years ago, flashed 
through his mind, producing so deep an impression 
that he was unable to drive it away. He attempted 
to sing his song, but failed ; and on retiring from 
the stage was summarily dismissed by the manager. 
For three weeks he plunged into the deepest dis- 
sipation, being scarcely sober for a single hour in 
all that time. During this debauch he wrote a 
comedy ; which he finished off with a burlesque upon 
Messrs. Moody and Sankey, who had just then 
arrived in Liverpool; and in order to give greater point 
to his satire, he attended one of the services in Victoria 
Hall to hear them for himself. While thus watching 
for something of which to make sport, upon the comic 
stage, the Holy Spirit so impressed the truth upon 
his heart, that he remained to the after-meeting for 
inquirers, was instructed in the way of his duty, and 
that very night found peace with God. He has now 
entered into training for the purpose of becoming a 
missionary. 

The Victoria Hall, as well as the Circus, is still in 
use under the auspices of the Young Men's Christian 
Association ; whose members are conducting as many 
as forty meetings every night among all classes of 
people in various parts of Liverpool and Birken- 
head. 

Among the most striking events which have since 
occurred in connection with the Liverpool revival, must 
be recorded the important step taken by the Rev. Mr. 



352 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN 

Aitken. This clergyman, being called of God to the 
work of an evangelist, in which he has been, of late, 
remarkably blessed, recently resigned his living, as so 
vicar of Christ's Church ; and now, free from all clerical 
restraints, and relying wholly upon God for his sup- 
port, is devoting himself to preaching in revivals an<3 
" missions." 



353 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE LONDON REVIVAL. 

ON the 9th of March, 1875, Mr. Moody entered 
upon his long contemplated work in London. 
A letter from him, which appeared in The Chris- 
tian, urging the establishment of noonday prayer- 
meetings all over the country, attracted the notice 
of some brethren in London, who were interested 
in meetings of this description then being held in 
various parts of the capital. They came together 
to consult upon the establishment of one central 
meeting, which was finally located at Moorgate 
Street Hall. A committee of management was 
suggested, of which Thomas Stone, Esq., was made 
chairman ; Robert Paton, Esq., honorary secretary ; 
and James E. Mathieson, Esq., treasurer. At this 
conference, where various branches of the Church 
of Christ were represented, it was determined to 
address to Mr. Moody a formal invitation to come 
to London ; although, in an indefinite way, it had 
been understood from the first that such was 
his ultimate intention. They at once opened com- 
munication with him ; and, having received his 
promise to labour for the months of March, April, 
16 



354 MOODY AND SANKR V IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

May and June in the four different quarters of Lon- 
don, they set about the arrangements, which were 
planned on a magnificent scale. " If I come to 
London," said Mr. Moody, " you will need to raise 
five thousand pounds for expense of halls, adver- 
tising, etc., etc." 

" We have ten thousand pounds already," was the 
reply. 

The Moorgate Hall prayer-meeting, which was 
commenced in October 1874, was regarded as a 
work of preparation. It was kept up, with varying 
success, but without exciting any general interest. 

During his week of rest between Birmingham and 
Liverpool, Mr. Moody, who was to pass through Lon- 
don, suggested that the ministers of the capital should 
be invited to meet him at the Freemasons' Hall. A 
letter was sent by the Committee, signed by Mr. 
Moody, to the two thousand pastors in London ; and 
about twelve hundred responded to the invitation. 

At this meeting, having been introduced by the 
chairman, Mr. Moody said that, in view of certain 
misapprehensions concerning himself and his friend 
Mr. Sankey, he had desired to meet the ministers 
of London, whose confidence and help he greatly 
needed ; and, accordingly, he had invited them, 
not so much to speak to them himself, as to answer 
any questions which they might desire to ask. 
Upon this, a volley of sharp inquiries was poured in 
upon him for half an hour or more; and never was 
his skill, in conducting " the question drawer," more 
urgently needed or more successfully used. Ministers 
of all denominations were present ; each one looking 



FREEMASONS' HALL MEETING. 355 

at this strange man from his own sectarian point of 
view, and anxious to know, first of all, what treatment 
his peculiar notions were likely to receive in the 
proposed revival meetings. Among the first inquiries 
were some concerning the finances of the movement. 
How was Mr. Moody paid ? Was Mr. Sankey 
peddling American organs ? What about the copy- 
right of the singing books ? etc. But Mr. Moody 
was not long in setting these matters at rest. He 
informed them that he had money enough for all 
his personal expenses in London ; and didn't ask that 
city for a penny. Mr. Sankey was not selling 
organs ; and as for the profits of the little hymn- 
book, which had been sold in such great numbers, 
he had indeed received a royalty upon them ; but, 
in order that no one should say that this revival had 
the least flavour of a speculation about it, he then 
and there resigned into the hands of Mr. Mathieson, 
the treasurer of the London Committee, all right and 
title to the profits of the book in qnestion. 

A minister who announced himself as a " red-hot 
ritualist" inquired whether Mr. Moody would send 
back to a ritualist pastor any members of his con- 
gregation who might be converted in the revival ? 
This question was somewhat embarrassing ; but 
Mr. Moody replied, that his business was not to 
apportion the converts among the churches, but to 
lead as many souls to Christ as possible. Another 
minister wished to know exactly what was Mr. 
Moody's creed ; suggesting that it should be printed 
and circulated, in order that the Christian public 
might know what sort of doctrine he preached. 



3$6 MOODY AND SAN KEY IN GREAT BRITAIN, 

" It is already in print, and in circulation," said Mr- 
Moody. " You may find it in the fifty-third chapter of 
Isaiah." " Are you going to institute efforts to reach 
and save the miserably poor ? " said one. " Oh yes," 
was the reply, "and the miserably rich also." 

One old gentleman was greatly disturbed lest Mr. 
Moody's frequent reference to the sins of dram-selling 
and intemperance should cause the revival to degene- 
rate into a movement in aid of teetotal reform. Pre- 
judices of all sorts were thrust before the face of this 
man ; who cared nothing whatever for any of them, — 
desiring only to know how he might save the greatest 
number of souls ; and, in order to this, how he might 
shape his course, without compromising his conscience, 
so as to gain the co-operation of the men who pro- 
fessed to be engaged in a similar work In this 
respect, this famous meeting was not a great success; 
but it was useful as a striking picture of the spirit 
of contention with which the various branches of 
Christian work are carried on. 

The British metropolis cannot be properly described 
as a city. It is a vast assemblage of cities ; and its 
people, unlike those of the places where the evange- 
lists had hitherto been labouring, had very few points 
in common. Each minister and congregation formed 
a separate community ; watchfully caring for their 
own progress, but strongly tempted, by sharp com- 
petition, to leave all outside Christian enterprises to 
take care of themselves. 

The magnitude of the attempt to reach and move 
the great metropolis may appear in the fact that in 
the north quarter of London, where the meetings 



GREA T L ONDON. 357 

first commenced, the single parish of Islington, 
which is only about one-third of this north quarter, 
contains a population equal to Liverpool or Chicago ; 
while in the whole of North London, as marked 
on Mr. Moody's map, there is nearly a million of 
souls. 

The Agricultural Hall was naturally suggested 
as the point in the North at which to com- 
mence the work. This great structure has two prin- 
cipal uses ; one for the Smithfield cattle show at 
Christmas, and the other for the great horse-fair in 
June. Under its arched roof of glass and iron is 
an area where thousands of cattle are exhibited in 
pens and stalls ; and where horses in great numbers 
inarch in grand procession. Twenty or thirty hunters 
at once, arc here put through their trials of jumping 
and running. These facts, better than any figures 
which may be given, will serve to indicate the 
immense size of the great hall of the Agricultural 
Society. This place had once before been used for 
preaching, by Mr. Spurgeon ; though it was regarded as 
altogether too large for such a purpose. But Mr.Moody, 
with his experience of the Crystal Palace in Dublin, 
Bingley Hall in Birmingham, and the great Victoria 
Hall at Liverpool, was only too glad to find such 
an audience- room in which to preach the Gospel. 
After all the different estimates of the capacity of 
this place, it is enough to say that, during the first 
week of meetings here, the congregations averaged 
about eighteen thousand. But it was found impos- 
sible to make so large a number hear distinctly the 
preaching, or even the singing ; and the size was 



358 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

reduced, by means of temporary partitions under the 
galleries, to the capacity of about fourteen thousand. 
In this shape it was constantly overcrowded ; every 
seat being sometimes occupied for nearly an hour 
before the service commenced. 

For each of the four quarters of London a local 
secretary was appointed ; who, under the direction of 
the Central Committee, attended to the management 
and advertising of the services. There were also 
local committees for each denomination of Christians, 
in this case amounting to the aggregate of three or 
four hundred members ; formed with a view to the 
thorough visitation of Islington, Hackney, Clerken- 
well, Camden Town, Kingsland, Highbury, and all 
the region from the river on the south to the open 
country in the north; and bounded on the east and west 
respectively, by Regent's Park and Hackney Road. 
It was, however, found impossible to carry out such 
an extensive scheme, and the visitation was never 
completed. 

The attitude of many of the pastors was at first 
one of observation and armed neutrality; though a 
few of the most honoured ministers, both of the 
Established and Nonconformist churches, gave their 
heartiest co-operation. Those cautious brethren oc- 
cupied the platform by hundreds; but very few of 
them were willing to assist at the inquiry meetings, 
or in any way to identify themselves with Mr. Moody 
and his work. The movement was a new one. There 
were possible dangers attending it ; and it was not 
until, by his earnest and simple preaching of the Word 
of God, and the manifest blessing of Heaven upon 



ARMED NEUTRALITY. 359 

his labours, that the ministry, in large numbers, felt it 
safe to join hands with him. 

The inquiry meetings were held in St. Mary's Hali - 
a spacious audience-room, when not compared with the 
vast hall itself; and this was densely filled, night after 
night, not only with penitent sinners and those w;io 
were pointing them to Christ, but also with per- 
sons anxious to see what was going on. So great 
a curiosity was the inquiry meeting thought to be, that 
the passages to St. Mary's Hall were blocked with 
such crowds as London only can show ; pushing and 
elbowing and shouldering and crushing, to get a peep 
at those who had taken this first important step in 
coming out from the world and giving themselves to 
Christ. On this account it was found necessary to 
remove the inquiry meetings to one of the great 
galleries within the Hall itself; where the work of 
instruction might be protected from the overwhelming 
crowds of people, who seemed no less anxious to 
watch this novel exercise than to hear Mr. Moody 
preach or Mr. Sankey sing. 

The Secretary for the North, and the Rev. H. 
C. Billing, vicar of the Church of Holy Trinity, 
Islington, with the assistance of seventy or eighty 
stewards or ushers, managed these great meetings 
with much efficiency and success. The stewards 
were Christian men who volunteered for this service 
at the public call of the Committee. They were 
received on the certificate of their pastors ; and 
the service which they rendered in this humble way 
contributed in no small degree to the success of the 
work at the Agricultural Hall. 



360. MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

These stewards were afterwards organized into a 
fraternal society, which is still kept up ; not only in 
remembrance of the revival, but from a strong de- 
sire to perpetuate the catholic spirit which sprang 
up in their hearts while, as representatives of different 
communions, they had cordially laboured together. 

The number of those who were awakened under the 
preaching, as well as under the singing, increased 
from week to week. After the public service was 
over, Mr. Moody would often find, in one of the ante- 
rooms, a hundred men awaiting his instruction : 
Mr. Sankey, in another room, would address seventy 
or eighty women: in the gallery specially set 
apart for inquirers, there would be sometimes four 
or five hundred persons conversing, two by two, 
about the salvation of their souls ; while here and 
there, in groups scattered about the great Hall, 
anxious sinners were eagerly listening while some 
Christian worker, who had been duly appointed to 
this task, pointed them to the cross of Calvary. Be- 
sides St. Mary's Hall, holding perhaps twelve hundred 
people, there were three other rooms of nearly equal 
size, in use as rooms of inquiry. 

At first the congregations were composed of re- 
spectable, church-going people ; but afterwards, efforts 
were put forth to reach the lower classes ; and many 
wretched characters from the slums of London were 
brought to the meetings, and to Christ. 

For the term of eleven weeks, including the one 
week of preliminary services held before Mr. Moody's 
arrival, the North London revival meetings were 
continued. Mr. Moody was here for five weeks, every 



HELPERS IN THE WORK. 361 



afternoon and evening, except Saturday ; and after 
his departure to East London, meetings were kept 
up for five weeks more, by the Rev. William Taylor, 
of California, the Rev. Mr. Aitken, of Liverpool, the 
Rev. Newman Hall, of London, and the Rev. Dr. 
Mackay, of Hull; with occasional brief assistance 
from Mr. Moody and Mr. Sankey, as well as from 
the local ministry of North London, and visiting 
clergymen from all over Great Britain. 

The same methods which had been used elsewhere 
so successfully were the ones which were followed 
here. Many difficulties were continually arising out 
of the new circumstances of the case ; but they were 
met and overcome with a wisdom which seemed to 
come down from above. Thus the Agricultural Hall 
was not only the scene of a great revival, but a school 
in which the committee, and the evangelists themselves, 
were prepared for the further labours which awaited 
them in the capital. 

No less than twenty noonday prayer-meetings are 
regularly held in London: another meeting in connec- 
tion with this work was also opened in Exeter Hall, 
on the 9th of March ; and maintained, with evident 
marks of the Divine favour. Many eminent ministers 
and others came up to London from the towns and 
cities where the evangelists had laboured, and ren- 
dered good service in sustaining them. 

From Exeter Hall, the noonday prayer- meetings 
were removed first, to Her Majesty's Opera House 
in the Haymarket ; then to the Bow Road Hall ; 
and finally to the Victoria Theatre, in the south 
of London. From first to last these meetings have 
16* 



362 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

been a notable feature of the London revival. 
The requests for prayer which continually poured 
in were too many to be read in or ler, and it was 
necessary to classify them thus : — Fifty requests for 
prayer for unconverted husbands by Christian wives. 
Ten requests for prayer for unconverted wives by 
Christian husbands. Two requests for prayer for 
unconverted ministers, by members of their congrega- 
tions. Fifteen requests for prayer for prodigal sons, 
by broken-hearted parents. Eighty requests for 
prayer for children out of Christ. A minister requests 
prayer for his wife, who has been led astray by false 
teaching, and has become a sceptic. Requests for 
prayer, from Sunday-school teachers without number, 
for the conversion of their classes. Requests for 
prayer from ministers all over Great Britain, for 
revivals among their own people. 

The minuteness with which some of these requests 
entered into private family histories was almost 
startling ; showing that those who sent them were 
desperately in earnest. The different classes from 
which they came were also indicated. At Bow 
Road, in the East End, amongst a population 
where gin-palaces and wretched dwellings abounded, 
requests would come up for prayer on behalf 
of convicted dog-fighters, publicans, intemperate 
women, and persons who had been converted, but 
who were forced to live in wicked communities, like 
sheep in the midst of wolves. At the Opera House 
in the West End, the wealth and culture of its society 
were apparent not only in the wording of the letters, 
but also in the character of the requests themselves. 



MEETING OF EXTREMES. 363 

Prayer was sought for sons in the army and navy ; 
for sons consecrated to the holy ministry, who 
had broken away from restraints and entered upon 
worldly lives ; for absent relatives in India ; for 
persons in danger of backsliding by reason of worldly 
prosperity ; and those in danger of ruin by the vices 
of fashionable life. 

One day, as if to bring the two extremes together, 
a poor woman in Newgate prison, condemned to 
death, sent a request for prayer to be read at Her 
Majesty's Opera House ; on hearing which, the great 
congregation, largely composed of the nobility and 
gentry of London, seemed to be touched with pity, 
and joined in prayer for the soul of this poor criminal 
in a manner which showed that the Lord Himself 
was in it. 

Bow Road Hall. 

After labouring for five weeks at the Agricultural 
Hall, Messrs. Moody and Sankey removed to the 
tabernacle erected for their use in the East End of 
London ; named from the thoroughfare near which it 
was located, Bow Road Hall. This immense structure, 
the plan of which was perhaps suggested by Mr. 
Moody's favourite Bingley Hall, in Birmingham, was 
designed to hold an audience of ten thousand people. 
But even this was too small. A large tent was 
then pitched near the building, in which overflow 
meetings were held ; but it afterwards became more 
especially useful for the young men's meetings, which 
were conducted by Mr. Cole, of Chicago, Mr. Drum- 
mond, and others. 

That class of persons towards whom the labours 



364 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

of the evangelists in this part of London were chiefly- 
directed, are possessed of strong prejudices, as well 
as great curiosity. The latter element contributed, 
during the first few days, to fill the great Hall ; but 
the former produced such a reaction that, during the 
second week, the audiences fell off considerably ; 
and it began to be a matter of no little anxiety 
whether the meetings here would ultimately succeed. 

The conversion of a very wicked man under the 
labours of Mr. Henry Varley, after Messrs. Moody 
and Sankey had left the East, is related as a case 
in point. He was awakened and brought to Christ 
under a sermon from his countryman, and went home 
to his wife after the meeting, saying ; — "Get down the 
Bible; we will have prayers." The poor wife was over- 
joyed. " I am a Christian, too," said she ; " but I have 
been afraid to tell you of it for ten whole years." In 
relating his experience, he said, " I was determined 
not to be converted by these Americans, and I would 
not go to the meetings until after they were gone 
away." 

It will also be easily understood that a population 
so familiar with gin-palaces, and all their infamous 
accessories, were not easily persuaded to attend 
Divine service. They might go to the Hall for once, 
out of curiosity, or to sit in judgment upon the dis- 
course ; for these people are notable critics — equal in 
self-assurance to the high-learned rationalists them- 
selves — and if something were said which, in manner 
or matter, did not suit their fastidious tastes, they 
walked away grumbling, denouncing the speaker and 
the singer in terms more forcible than polite. But 



PLAIN PRE A CHING 365 

the reaction was only for a little. Mr. Moody's 
straightforwardness soon won their confidence. He 
did not address them in discourses elaborately divided 
into firstlies, secondlies, and thirdlies ; with introduc- 
tion figurative, historical, antithetical ; but aimed 
straight at their common-sense, talking to them in 
the same language about spiritual things that they 
themselves used in every-day conversation. He 
opened his discourse on heaven after this fashion : — 
" If I were going to talk to you about the United 
States of America, you would all want to hear what 
I had to say ; but now I am going to talk to you 
about heaven, some of you care nothing for it. And 
yet heaven is a great deal the better place of the 
two. A good many of you will never go to America, 
but every one of you may go to heaven if you will." 

It must by no means be understood that the con- 
gregations at the Bow Road Hall were entirely com- 
posed of the humbler classes. Within easy reach 
there are spacious streets and comfortable mansions, 
as well as dirty alleys and tumble-down houses. The 
rich and poor often met here together ; and the Lord, 
the Maker of them all, seemed equally willing to bless 
the one as the other. 

The local committee, aided by a large force of 
voluntary stewards, kept everything in order; and 
maintained an effective system of advertising, which 
they judged to be as appropriate in this enterprise as 
in any other. 

To some fastidious persons it might seem a curious 
sight to see a man promenading the streets with 
two huge boards suspended from his shoulders, the 



366 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

one before and the other behind, beaiing the striking 
words, " Moody and Sankey at Bow Road Hall to- 
night ! " in letters large enough to be read at the dis- 
tance of a hundred yards. A bellman, ringing with 
all his might one minute, and shouting with all his 
might the next, in giving notices of the revival meet- 
ings, was one of the methods of announcement sug- 
gested by Mr. Moody himself; who never was too nice 
about the means of doing good, so long as the good 
were done. This last was a method he desired to 
bring into use, from having observed that he was 
failing to attract a suitable proportion of the poor and 
wicked into his meetings. The crowds, he thought, 
looked too amiable, and were too well dressed. It was 
the congregation from the Agricultural Hall following 
him to the East End. Sometimes, looking over the 
sea of faces upturned before his gaze, he would say, — 
" I see too many Christian people here. I know you. 
A great many of you were at my meetings in Islington. 
You are converted already. Now, I want you to get 
up and go out, and leave room for hundreds of those 
sinners who are waiting outside for a chance to come 
in and hear the Gospel." Under such an invitation 
large numbers of believers would actually leave the 
places which they had occupied, perhaps for an 
hour before the meeting began ; and go out into the 
tent, or to some overflow meeting in the street, in 
order to make room for those who needed the Gospel 
more from having heard it less. 

Those who have been familiar with Mr. Moody for 
years, and remember the abandon and heartiness with 
which he used to throw himself into the meetings 



MAKING ROOM FOR SINNERS. 367 

among the poor people at the North Market Hall in 
Chicago, were able to recognise the same manner in 
him while he addressed his great congregations at 
the Bow Road Hall. He talked to them in a way 
which made them feel that he was not above them ; 
that he was their brother, and was not ashamed to 
own it ; and on this account they listened to htm all 
the more attentively, and his word went home to them 
with greater and swifter force of salvation. It was a 
sight to make the angels glad, to see hundreds of 
persons, men and women, young and old, who, after 
one of his impetuous appeals, would rise in that vast 
audience, to signify their desire to be saved. 

Many strange instances of the work of grace were 
constantly occurring. One day a notorious dog- 
fighter was awakened and brought to Christ ; and 
afterwards, on account of his strange experience, was 
invited to relate it in Her Majesty's Opera House, 
at the noon prayer-meeting; where he was received 
with especial kindness, because of the depths from 
which the Lord had evidently lifted him. 

Mr. Sankey's singing has been nowhere more abun- 
dantly blessed, except perhaps in Dublin, than it was 
at the Bow Road Hall. But while his voice and the 
accompanying influence of the Holy Spirit were able 
to awaken sinners, bring comfort to broken-hearted 
penitents, and lift the souls of believers into almost 
heavenly joy, they were not sufficient even to keep 
the peace, among certain of the amateur musicians 
who had been organized into a choir. The same 
old difficulties, which in this world of sin seem 
scarcely separable from ordinary companies of men 



368 MOODY A AD SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN, 



and women set up to lead this part of Divine worship, 
were found even in the midst of this mighty revival ; 
and Mr. Sankey was obliged to say to some of those 
over-sensitive individuals; — " Don't trouble yourselves 
with the thought that you are essential to the meet- 
ings here. They would go on without Mr. Sankey, 
and certainly they will go on without you." After this 
rebuke, he invited them down to one of the inquiry 
rooms, where they had a season of prayer together, 
which so calmed their troubled spirits, that, thence- 
forth, there was more harmony of all kinds amongst 
them. 

After Mr. Moody's departure the meetings were 
kept up in the Bow Road Hall, as they had been at 
the Agricultural Hall. The Rev. Mr. Pym, the 
Rev. Mr. Aitken, Mr. Henry Varley, and others, 
occupied the speaker's desk ; and during the last 
days of June and the first of July, the Jubilee Singers, 
returning for a second tour in England, were placed 
under the direction of the Central Committee, to help 
along the work. Their wonderful melodies, born of 
sorrow, and wrought out with toils and tears, were 
sometimes no less impressive than the spirited 
solos of Mr. Sankey himself. The same blessings 
attended them, and awakenings and conversions were 
frequent. One lady was brought to the knowledge 
of Christ through hearing them chant the Lord's 
Prayer. 

The West End. 

The Royal Opera House, in the Haymarket, was 
the place which seemed providentially appointed for 



THE WEST END. 369 



Messrs. Moody and Sankey's meetings in the West 
End of London. The place had been for a long time 
vacant by reason of legal complications ; and was 
only secured under certain embarrassments, which 
gave the Committee no little trouble and expense, 
but which did not in any wise hinder the revival. 
Some solicitude had been felt by many of Mr. 
Moody's friends lest the blessing which had attended 
him elsewhere might not follow him into the circles 
of wealth, nobility, and fashion ; but Mr. Moody 
himself seems to have had no anxiety upon this 
point. With him, a sinner riding in a carriage em- 
blazoned with a coat of arms, was just as much in 
need of a Saviour as the poor dog-fighter himself. 
It was his calling to preach the Gospel here, as he 
had preached it elsewhere ; and his simple, manly 
earnestness, and utter forgetfulness of himself, soon 
won for him not only the respect, but the admiration 
of those cultivated noblemen and ladies, than whom 
no people in the world are more ready to honour 
genuine excellence, or acknowledge the influence of 
real genius or piety. To them Mr. Moody was a rare 
Christian. The fact that he was not a scholar was 
forgotten. He evidently knew Christ and His Gospel 
and, because of this, the best people in London, in- 
cluding members of the royal household, pressed to 
hear his Bible readings and addresses ; wept over his 
touching stories illustrating the love of Christ to lost 
sinners ; sang with heartiness and rapture the sweet 
hymns and songs which the revival had already made 
familiar ; and some of them, joining hands with him 
as one beloved of the Lord, gave him not only their 



370 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

personal friendship, but added the weight of their 
names and influence to help forward with the work. 
It is quite evident that many of these wealthy per- 
sons must have added somewhat of the weight of 
their purses also ; for, during the last week of the 
revival in London, it was announced that twenty-four 
thousand pounds (one hundred and twenty thousand 
dollars) had been expended in arrangements for the 
revival ; and that four or five thousand pounds, in 
addition, would be required to cover their cost. 

The grand tier, as the first gallery in the Opera 
House is called, had been, by time-honoured custom, 
reserved for the nobility ; and it was noticed, in the 
rush for tickets, by which it was necessary to divide 
the crowds pressing for one of the five thousand seats 
in the building, that applications for places in the 
grand tier proportionally outnumbered those for seats 
in any other part of the building. 

The local committee for the West gave personal 
attention to the management of the meetings in the 
Opera House; constantly assisted by the chairman 
and secretary of the Central Committee, and by 
other gentlemen of fortune and leisure, who , from 
the first, had given their whole time to labouring 
in, as well as enjoying, these blessed means of 
grace. By far the heavier part of their duties 
consisted in keeping people out after the House was 
absolutely full ; and in arranging such an order of 
services as might best accommodate the thousands 
who continually pressed to hear the speaking and the 
singing. Three or four different meetings a day were 
held. First, the noon prayer-meeting, at which Mr. 



THE OPERA HOUSE. 371 

Moody often presided ; then a Bible lecture at half- 
past three o'clock — sometimes for women only, and 
sometimes for mixed audiences; another address or 
sermon at half-past seven ; and, as soon as the House 
could be cleared, a meeting for men, at nine o'clock 
in the evening. After all these, except the noon 
prayer-meeting, inquirers were instructed in two large 
ante-rooms of the Opera House, both of which were 
frequently filled. 

For several weeks Mr. Moody divided his atten- 
tion between the Opera House and the Bow Road 
Hall. The fastest conveyance was selected from 
among the cabs about the region of the Hay- 
market, to convey him to the East, as soon as he 
should finish his discourse at the West. 

One who is curious in such matters has remarked 
how readily he transformed, as weli as transferred, 
himself from one meeting to the other. Instinctively, 
the few graces of diction and manner which were in 
him, came out, rather than were brought out, before 
his cultivated audiences at the West End ; but some- 
where on the road these were always dropped, and 
the old abandon and heartiness were sure to appear, 
the moment he reached the platform of the Bow 
Road Hall. This same d fference was noticed 
in his discourses : also in the adaptation of his 
addresses to different congregations in the same 
places. If the meeting were one for women, he 
seemed to be conscious of the fact that there were 
a g eat many persons before him who were sorrowing 
over wayward sons or godless husbands. He did not 
fail to notice, although he did not speak of it, the 



372 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRiTA/N. 

many widows' weeds which were scattered through 
the congregation ; and in his selection of the hymns 
and the Scriptures, as well as his topics ior dis- 
course, he manifested a tenderness bordering upon 
reverence, for those upon whom, in London, as every- 
where else, the heaviest burdens of care and sorrow 
always come. He would ask Mr. Sankey to sing 
some comfortable or touching solo, and would give 
out for the congregation, "Jesus, Lover of my soul," 
or, " There is life for a look at the Crucified One," or, 
" Safe in the arms of Jesus." But when the women 
were gone, and the men came rushing in, leaping over 
the chairs and crowding to their places, he would seem 
to be transformed, and suiting himself to the spirit of 
his congregation, he would lead off the service with 
" Ring the bells of heaven," or " Hold the fort." In 
this way, without seeming to be conscious of it, he 
illustrated the true spirit of the declaration of the 
apostle : making himself all things to all men, hoping 
thereby to save some. 

The London revival had now become a world-wide 
wonder. Every day the news of it occupied large 
spaces in the public prints. So great was the desire 
to hear and to spread the tidings of it, that several 
extra newspapers were started in the capital ; and 
some of those which had been leading a precarious 
life leaped at once into large success. 

The press throughout the English-speaking world 
were discussing the merits of Mr. Moody's preaching 
and Mr. Sankey 's singing ; some writers wondering 
how the men could do it ; others, taking counsel of 
their own gross natures, wondered why they did it, and 



THE VIEWS OF THE ARCHBISHOP. 373 

how much they made by it ; others, seeing and feeling 
the Divine mission of the men, thanked God for 
raising them up, and besought Him to send forth more 
such labourers into the whitening harvest. 

Still, although sinners by thousands were coming 
to Christ, some, who held high places in what 
they called the kingdom of Christ on earth, made 
use of the secular press to give faint praise and 
forcible rebukes to these irregular workers in the 
Lord's vineyard. The devils were fleeing— cast out 
by the power which accompanied their word; but the 
men were not following certain traditional lines. 

The Archbishop of Canterbury felt moved to ex- 
plain that, from what he had heard of Mr. Moody 
and his work, he had no doubt good was being ac- 
complished ; in which, of course, all Christians must 
rejoice ; but it was not at all according to his sense of 
the high dignity of his office to sanction such irregular 
proceedings, or advise his clergy to co-operate in 
them. To this another eminent minister replied ; — " I 
think it rather presumptuous for an archbishop to 
talk about sanctioning the work of Mr. Moody and 
Mr. Sankey. I should as soon think of asking him 
to sanction the kindly rain that falls upon the parched 
fields, after weeks and months of drought" 

Another event which made no small stir, and 
which even agitated the great British Parliament 
itself, was Messrs. Moody and Sankey's meeting in 
the vicinity of the famous old school at Eton. One 
of the Eton boys had been happily converted 
at the revival meetings in London ; and, feeling 
desirous that his schoolfellows should profit by 



374 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

the same precious Gospel which had been so 
blessed to him, he sought and obtained a promise 
from Mr. Moody, that, some time, he would go down 
to Eton and hold a service there. Mr. Moody had 
forgotten all about it, when, nearly a month after- 
wards, the young man claimed the fulfilment of the 
promise ; and arrangements were made to hold the 
meeting in a tent which had been pitched not far from 
the school. 

This famous college is a High-Church institu- 
tion ; and one or two of its patrons, who did not 
wish their sons to be subjected to any such irregular 
religious influence as the preaching of Mr. Moody, 
protested against the proposed service under its 
shadow. One honourable member of the House of 
Commons announced his intention of publicly ques- 
tioning Mr. Gladstone, who had given a letter of 
introduction to the head -master, to one of Mr. 
Moody's friends. The House of Lords also took 
up the matter ; and violent articles appeared in the 
newspapers, denouncing the Evangelists and their 
friends, for attempting to forward their interests or 
increase their reputation, by thus associating their 
work with the Eton school. The excitement became 
so great that Mr. Moody was waited upon by a com- 
mittee, who begged him to withdraw his appointment. 
He replied : " I have never missed an appointment 
yet, during this trip ; and I certainly shall not begin 
now." 

The invitation which he had accepted had been 
signed by a large majority of the students in the 
college ; and, to yield to the pressure against him 



THE MEETING AT ETON. 375 

was not at all congenial to his tastes or habits — 
in whom the quality of firmness, especially under 
impressions of duty, is developed to a remark- 
able degree. He was only anxious lest disturbances, 
which seemed likely to occur, should result in a fight, 
and that some of the boys might receive bodily 
injury ; in which event he would be blamed as the 
cause of all the difficulty. However, the meeting, 
which evidently could not be safely held in the tent, 
was appointed to take place in the Town Hall ; 
the Mayor, who was a nonconformist, bravely 
maintaining his position in favour of free speech, 
though set upon most vehemently with a view 
to obtain an order closing the Hall against Messrs. 
Moody and Sankey. At last, however, his courage 
failed ; and hastily causing a notice to be printed, to 
the effect that no meeting would be held, he de- 
spatched it to the college, where it was distributed 
among the boys. This was at two o'clock. The 
meeting was to be held at four in the afternoon. 

The private grounds of a gentleman at Eton 
were placed at Mr. Moody's disposal ; and here he 
preached in the presence of about two hundred of the 
college boys, and twice or thrice that number of the 
citizens of the town. His text was, — " Behold I 
bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be 
to all people." But why he should have been so 
belaboured in Parliament, and abused in the public 
press, for bringing glad tidings of great joy to a com- 
pany of lads in Eton college, is still somewhat of a 
riddle to a large portion of the British public. 

The Times, in its fatherly way, repeated, in sub- 



376 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 



stance, the famous advice once given by the town- 
clerk of Ephesus ; with the further kind suggestion, 
to those who had rushed into print, and disturbed 
the solemn counsels of the nation on so small a matter, 
not to make themselves ridiculous. This good counsel 
was acted upon, and no more noise was heard. 

SOUTH LONDON. — THE CAMBERWELL HALL. 

From the Opera House, where the power and 
blessing of the Lord was increasingly felt to the last, 
the evangelists removed to the new hall erected for 
them near Camberwell Green. This building, like 
the one at the Bow Road, was an immense frame- 
work of wood, covered with corrugated iron; having the 
earth itself for the floor. It was smaller than the Bow 
Road Hall, having chairs for about eight thousand 
people. The meetings in it were under the direction 
of the committee for the South, with the constant 
assistance of the president, secretary, and treasurer 
of the Central Committee ; who not only gave atten- 
tion to the material interests, but also laboured in 
the rooms of inquiry. Here, as everywhere, the con- 
gregations overflowed ; and outside meetings in the 
streets, and in a neighbouring Presbyterian church, 
were frequently held, by Mr. Moorhouse, Mr. Drum- 
mond, and others, with most encouraging results. 
On one of the last days, while a dense audience had 
gathered in the building and the service was in pro- 
gress, the doors were actually burst open by the 
crowds outside, who attempted to force their way 
into the building. Fears were excited for the safety 



CAMBERWELL HALL, 377 

of the structure, and a panic ensued ; however, by 
the efforts of Mr. Moody, something like quiet was 
restored, and the meeting went on as usual. 

The chief interest at the Camberwell Hall has cen- 
tered in the inquiry rooms. These have been under 
the management of four leading pastors, of as many 
different denominations. The large list of helpers 
under their direction, having learned a great deal of 
wisdom in the first months of the revival, have 
seemed to be particularly blessed in this precious 
work. 

Among the cases which came under his own care, 
one of the pastors relates the following : — 

The son of a minister came to the inquiry room, 
saying he had attended a meeting just to please his 
little daughter, who, for some reason or other, had 
taken to prattling about the revival. A hymn sung 
by Mr. Sankey had awakened him, and, in spite of 
the infidel notions which for years he had professed, 
he quite broke down under it ; though by reason of 
his great wickedness he did not dare to hope for 
salvation. 

" I ran away from home/' said he " and joined 
the French army. In my wild soldier-life I used to 
profess to be an infidel ; but I was a hyprocrite : 
I believed and feared the Bible all the time. 

" Do you think there is any hope for me ? " he 
continued. 

" Yes," said the pastor ; and he quoted to him that 

text — " Whosoever believeth," etc. Then they knelt 

together, and the poor man poured out a most 

heart-breaking prayer for himself. All at once he 

*7 



378 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

stopped. " I almost feel as if I could venture on 
Christ," said he. " Do you think I may ? " " Cer- 
tainly ; at once," was the reply. And then he began 
to thank God for His patience and long-suffering, in 
a way that showed his humble gratitude and child- 
like trust in the Saviour. 

Among the converts are several Jews ; a great 
many Roman Catholics ; a large number of infidels 
and scoffers ; as well as some choice young men, who 
will doubtless become evangelists and pastors ; thus 
spreading, in untold circles of blessing, the influence 
of this marvellous work of grace. 

In spite of the complaints that Mr. Moody was 
partial and one-sided in his views of religious truth, 
it came to be fully recognised that he knew and could 
teach certain things, better than any other man had 
ever done in Great Britain. The first of these was, the 
doctrine of substitution : " Christ died for us." The 
second was, the experience of regeneration. The 
third was, Christian work. 

The great revival and its leaders furnished texts 
for sermons in some of the leading pulpits of Eng- 
land. Mr. Spurgeon discoursed upon his friend Mr. 
Moody in the Metropolitan Tabernacle; the Rev. 
Dr. Cumming announced that, on a certain Sabbath, 
he would attempt to show Mr. Moody's place in pro- 
phecy : but whether words were spoken for, or against 
him, they seemed only to help on the work. 

It is to be noticed that the sharpest adverse 
criticisms came from those who knew least about him ; 
while it often transpired that those who were bitterly 
opposed to everything of this sort, as they understood 



ALL THE WA Y FROM INDLA. 37$ 

it ; after hearing an address by Mr. Moody, or a song 
by Mr. Sankey, and seeing the effects thereof, came 
to be their personal friends and admirers, and gave 
a hearty co-operation in the movement. 

A considerable number of persons followed in the 
wake of this great series of revivals ; removing their 
residence as the place of meeting was removed. 
Some of these persons, eminent for their piety and 
zeal, were greatly blessed in winning souls to Christ. 
Mr. Moody himself mentioned a lady, whose name 
would at once be widely and honourably recognised, 
who had laboured in the inquiry room ever since the 
meetings at Edinburgh; and who, up to that time — the 
last week but one of the two years' campaign — had 
been the means of bringing a hundred and fifty souls 
to the Saviour. It was a frequent sight, in the inquiry 
room at the Opera House, to see eminent Christians, 
both lay and clerical, pointing out the way of faith 
and salvation to penitents who were eagerly listening 
to the best instruction which was possible to be had on 
such subjects. Distinguished clergymen, coming to 
the meetings for a few days, entered eagerly into this 
work. Those who were opposed to this revival, and to 
all revivals, made special complaint of the inquiry 
meetings, which they called " confessionals "; but such 
services, conducted by chosen servants of God, many 
of whom had for years been honoured pastors of 
large congregations, were not likely to bring any 
harm, certainly ; but produced untold results for 
good. Far and wide, throughout all Christendom^ 
the news of the great London revival was spread ; and 
from across the continents and oceans came letters and 



380 MOODY AND SANKEY IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

despatches, begging for prayers on behalf of individuals 
and communities, or returning thanksgiving for prayers 
already answered. 

The name of one gentleman is mentioned, a colonel 
in the army in India, who was so deeply interested in 
the revival in London, where he had two sons residing, 
who were still out of Christ, that, on only a three 
months' leave of absence, the most of which must be 
spent on the ocean, he came in person to London, 
with the hope of bringing those sons to Christ, by 
bringing them to the meetings of the evangelists from 
America. 

Conclusion. 

In an enterprise of such magnitude as that which 
is here imperfectly outlined, it is evident that no 
exactness in the matter of results is possible to be 
attained. At the Agricultural and Bow Road Halls, 
as well as at the Opera Ho'use, converts' meetings 
were held at the conclusion of the services ; to which 
tickets were issued, after personal examination as 
to the experience of those 'who applied for them. 
The same course is about to be followed at the 
Camberwell Hall ; and while it is impossible to say 
just how many sinners have been awakened and con- 
verted, and how many professors of religion have been 
brought to a better sense of their privilege and a better 
performance of their duty, it may be safe to close 
this record of the two years' revival in Great Britain 
and Ireland, with the statement, that God has honoured 
the faith of His servants even beyond their largest 
hope ; and that, besides the multitudes who elsewhere 



CONCLUSION. 381 



\iave been blessed under their labours, Mr. Moody 
and his friend Mr. Sankey have had the unspeak- 
able joy of winning, in London alone, more than 
the full " ten thousand souls for Christ." 

If it has not already appeared in these pages that 
the power which attends the ministry of these two 
men, is of God ; and that they are honoured, in this 
pre-eminent degree, because they speak and sing 
the simple Gospel of Christ, instead of any doc- 
trines or fancies of their own, then the book has failed 
of the purpose for which it has been written. 

Another manifest reason why such benedictions 
follow them seems to be, their catholicity of spirit. 
Mr. Moody would never ask, or even suffer himself to 
know, the sect to which a minister or worker belonged, 
save for the purpose of avoiding any seeming parti- 
ality or neglect which might accidentally occur ; and 
his heartfelt desire to be a helper, and not a rival, 
of the ministry, is seen in the fact that, with very 
very few exceptions, all his meetings have been held 
at such hours, on the Sabbath day and evening, as 
would not conflict with regularly established services 
at the churches. 

This man, so humble, so earnest, so forgetful of 
himself, and so full of faith in Christ, has fairly 
earned the favour which he has everywhere received ; 
and the Lord Jehovah Himself, as if to show His 
approbation of such ministry of His Word, has 
taken this obscure home-missionary from among 
the ragged children on The Sands, and in the Old 
North Market Hall, and made his name a word of 
wonder throughout the Christian world. 



382 



CHAPTER X. 

GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 

THE peculiar aptness and power of some of Mr. 
Moody's running comments on texts of Scripture 
will appear in the following selections : — 

I wish people would use their dictionaries more, and study 
the meaning of some of these Bible words. There is that word 
" repentance." Some people are saying, " Why don't Mr. 
Moody tell us more about repentance ?" Well, what is repent- 
ance ? Some one says it is a " godly sorrow for sin." But I 
tell you a man can't have a godly sorrow, or a godly anything- 
else, till after he repents. Repentance means right-about-face ! 
Some one says, " Man is born with his back towards God, and 
repentance is turning square round." 

" What shall I then do with Jesus which is called Christ ? " 
Pilate has Christ on his hands, and now he wants to know how 
to get rid of Him. So it is with every convicted soul who is 
not ready to be saved now. Poor Pilate ! Poor Herod ! Poor 
Agrippa ! How near they got to the kingdom of heaven, and 
yet never got in ! 

Do you think it was an awful thing for those Jews to choose 
Barabbas instead of Jesus ? All you who are refusing to 
become Christians this afternoon are worse than they ; for 
instead of Christ you choose Satan himself. 



GLIMPSES INTO 7 HE WORD. 383 

Judas got near enough to Christ to kiss Him, and yet went 
down to damnation. 



A man once wanted to sell me a " Book of Wonders." I 
took it and looked it over, and could not find anything in it 
about Calvary. What a mistake ! A book of wonders — and the 
greatest wonder of all left out ' 

Poor drunkard ! — Come to Christ ; Christ is stronger than 
strong drink ! 

We have three great enemies : the world, the flesh, and the 
devil. But we have also three great Friends : the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Ghost. 

"Now is the accepted time." The last night I preached in 
Farwell Hall, in Chicago, I made the greatest mistake of my 
life. I told the people to take that text home with them and 
pray over it. But as we went out the fire-bells were ringing, 
and I never saw that audience again. The fire had come. 
The city was in ashes ; and perhaps some of those very people 
were burned up in it. There is no other time to be saved but 
now. 



Naaman left only one thing in Samaria, and that was his sin 
— his leprosy : and the only thing God wishes you to leave 
is your sin. And yet it is the only thing you seem not to 
care about giving up. " Oh," you say, " I love leprosy ; it is so 
delightful, I can't give it up. I know God wants it, that He 
may make me clean. But I can't give it up." Why, what 
downright madness it is to love leprosy ! 



Some people tell us it does not make any difference what a 
man believes if he is only sincere. One Church is just as good 
as another if you are only sincere. I do not believe any 
greater delusion ever came out of the pit of hell than that. It 



384 GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 

is ruining more souls at the present than anything else. I 
never read of any men more sincere or more earnest than those 
men at Mount Carmel — those false prophets. They were 
terribly in earnest. You do not read of men getting so in 
earnest now that they take knives and cut themselves. Look at 
them leaping upon their altars ; hear their cry — " Oh Baal ! oh 
Baal ! " We never heard that kind of prayer on this platform. 
They acted like madmen. They were terribly in earnest : yet 
did not God hear their cry ? They were all slain. 

Look at poor old Pharaoh down there in Egypt, when the 
plague of frogs was on him. What an awful time he must have 
had ! Frogs in the fields, and frogs in the houses ; frogs in the 
bedrooms, and frogs in the kneading-troughs . When the king 
went to bed, a frog would jump on to his face ; when he cut into 
a loaf of bread, there was a frog in the middle of it. Nothing 
but frogs everywhere ! Frogs, frogs, frogs ! He stood it as long 
as he could ; and then he sent for Moses, and begged him to 
take them away. " When would you like to have me do it ? " 
says Moses. Now just listen to what he says. You would think 
he would say, Now ! this minute ! I have had them long enough ! 
But he says, — " To-moi'roiv." Kept the frogs another day, when 
he might have got rid of them at once ! That is just like you, 
sinner. You say you want to be saved ; but you are willing to 
keep your hateful, hideous sins till to-morrow, instead of being 
rid of them now. 

You have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, but 
God comes and says, " I will pardon you. Come now, and let 
us reason together." " Now" is one of the words of the Bible 
the devil is afraid of. He says, " Do not be in a hurry ; there 
is plenty of time : do not be good now." He knows the 
influence of that word " now." " To-morrow " is the devil's 
word. The Lord's word is " now." God says, "Come now, 
and let us reason together. Though your sins are as scarlet, 
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red as crimson, 
I will make them as wool." Scarlet and crimson are two fast 
colours ; you would not get the colour out without destroying 
the garment. God says, " Though your sins are as scarlet and 
crimson, I will make them as wool and snow. I will do it now." 



GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 385 

God says, " Ye shall find me when ye shall search for me 
with all your heart." Now, it won't take a great while for an 
anxious sinner to meet an anxious God. It won't take a great 
while for a man who is really in earnest about the salvation of 
his soul to find peace in Him. I never yet found a man with 
his heart really set upon this one thing, — to find God, — but that 
he soon found his way into the kingdom of heaven. The great 
trouble with men is, that they are not really in earnest . Men 
don't seek for God as they seek for wealth and position down 
here in this world. Suppose I should say to-night that I lost 
last night in this hall a diamond worth ,£20,000 — which I didn't 
do ; but suppose I should say I did, and that I would give any 
one ,£10,000 that found it. I would not give much for the ser- 
mon. You would be thinking about the diamond all the even- 
ing. You would be thinking, " I wish I could find that diamond. 
I should like that ,£10,000." And I can imagine, as soon 
as the meeting was over — and some of you would not wait for 
that — you would look about and search this hall. How earnestly 
you would seek for that diamond ! Well, is there a man 01 
woman in this audience who will say that salvation is not worth 
more than all the diamonds in the world ? 



Many go all round the world in search of honour or posses- 
sions. Salvation is worth thousands of times more ; but you 
don't get it that way. God has but one price for salvation. Do 
you want to know what it is ? It is without money and without 
price. Rowland Hill said that most auctioneers found they had 
hard work to get people up to their price, but that he had hard 
work to get people down to his. " The wages of sin is death, 
but the gift of God is eternal life." Who will have it to-night ? 
I say to you, young man, will you have that gift to-night ? Sup- 
pose I was going over London Bridge, and saw a poor miserable 
beggar, bare-footed, coatless, hatless, with no rags hardly to 
cover his nakedness, — and right behind him, only a few yards, 
there was the Prince of Wales with a bag of gold,— and the poor 
beggar was running away from him as if he was running away 
from a demon, and the Prince of Wales was calling after 
him, " Oh, beggar, here is a bag of gold ! " Why, we should 
say the beggar had gone mad, to be running away from the 

17* 



386 GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 

Prince of Wales with the bag of gold ! Sinner, that is your 
condition. The Prince of Heaven wants to give you eternal 
life, and you are running away from Him. " The wages of sin 
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life." 



Out in our western country in the autumn, when men go 
hunting, and there has not been any rain for months, sometimes 
the prairie grass catches fire, and there comes up a very strong 
wind, and the flames just roll along twenty feet high, and go at 
the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour. 

When the frontier-men see it coming, what do they do ? 
They know they cannot run as fast as the fire can run. Not 
the fleetest horse can escape from that fire. They just take 
a match and light the gras§ around them, and let the fire sweep 
it, and then they get into the burnt district and stand safe. 
They hear the flames roar ; they see death coming towards 
them ; but they do not fear, they do not tremble ; because 
the fire has passed over the place where they are, and there is 
no danger. There is nothing for the fire to burn. 

There is one mountain peak that the wrath of God has swept 
over ; that is Mount Calvary, and that fire spent its fury upon 
the bosom of the Son of God. Take your stand here by the 
cross, and you will be safe for time and eternity. 

Did any of you ever go down into a coalpit, fifteen hundred or 
two thousand feet, right down into the bowels of the earth ? If 
you have, don't you know that it would be sheer madness to try 
to climb up the steep sides of that shaft and so get out of the 
pit ? Of course, you couldn't leap out of it ; in fact, you 
couldn't get out of it at all by yourself. But I'll tell you this, — 
you could get out of a coalpit fifteen hundred feet deep a good 
deal quicker than you can get out of the pit that Adam took 
you into. When Adam went down into it, he took the whole 
human family with him. But the Lord can take us out. 



You should be in earnest about seeking God. He was in 
earnest when he gave His Son to die for sinners. Christ was 
in earnest when He hung upon the cross. 



GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 387 

" I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me; and 
heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, 
out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established 
my goings ; and He hath put a new song in my mouth." Now 
in those three verses that little word He occurs three times : 
He heard my cry ; He brought me up out of the pit ; and He 
put a new song in my mouth. There is nothing there for the 
sinner to do — is there? He does it all. The great trouble 
people have now-a-days is to make a new song for themselves. 
Why, you cannot sing without God tunes your heart and voice ! 
You cannot establish your own goings. You have tried that — 
have you not? How many times have you tried to get the 
control over your temper, or said, I will do this, and I will do 
that, and have failed every time ? You can't do it yourselves. 
He must do the saving. 



A good many people are complaining all the time about 
themselves, and crying out ; — " My leanness ! my leanness ! " 
when they ought rather to say, " My laziness ! my laziness ! " 



There is a large class of people who are always looking upon 
the dark side. Some time ago, I myself got under the juniper 
tree. In those days I used to fish all night, and catch nothing. 
One of the workers in our Mission came in to see me one 
Monday morning, full of joy, saying what a good Sunday he had. 
" Well," said I, " I am glad you have had a good day ; but I have 
had a very bad one." He knew I had been in trouble of mind 
and so he said, "Did you ever study Noah?" "No," said I; 
" I have read about him, but I don't know that I have ever 
studied him." " Well," said he, " study him. It will do you 
good." So I began to study Noah, and I found out that he 
preached for a hundred and twenty years without making a 
single convert. "That is a good deal worse than my case," thought 
I ; and that made me feel better at once. That day I went down 
to the noon prayer-meeting, and one poor sinner rose and asked 
us to pray for him. " What would old Noah have given for 
that?" thought I. I tell you, my friends, what we want is 
perseverance. When God sets us at anything, we want to keep 
at it, and leave all the consequences with Him. 



GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 



I can imagine when Christ said to the little band around 
Him, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel," Peter 
said, " Lord, do You really mean that we are to go back to 
Jerusalem and preach the Gospel to those men that murdered 
You?" "Yes," said Christ; "go, hunt up that man that 
spit in my face, and tell him he shall have a seat in my king- 
dom if he will accept of salvation as a gift. Yes, Peter ; go, 
find that man that made that cruel crown of thorns and 
placed it on my brow, and tell him I will have a crown ready 
for him when he comes into my kingdom, and no thorns in it. 
I will give him a crown of life. Hunt up that man that took a 
reed and brought it down over the cruel thorns, driving them 
into my brow, and tell him I will put a sceptre in his hand, and 
he shall rule over the nations of the earth if he will accept 
salvation. Search for the man that drove the spear into my side, 
and tell him there is a nearer way to my heart than that. Tell 
him I forgive him freely, and that he can be saved if he will 
accept of salvation as a gift. Go to the men that drove the 
nails into my hands and feet, and tell them I forgive them 
freely, and that they shall have a seat in my kingdom if they 
will accept of it. Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
Gospel to every creature." 

Many think they have been born again because they go to 
church. A great many say, " Oh ! yes, I am a Christian ; I go 
to church every Sabbath." Let me say here that there is no 
one in all London that goes to church so regularly as Satan. 
He is always there before the minister, and he is the last one 
out. There is not a church or a chapel, in London, but 
that he is a regular attendant of it. The idea that he is only 
down in the slums and lanes and alleys of London is a false one. 
The idea that he is only in public-houses — I will confess I 
think he is there, and that he is doing his work very well — but to 
think that he is only there, is a false idea. He is wherever the 
Word is preached ; it is his business to be there and catch away 
the seed. He is here to-night. Some of you may go to sleep, but 
he won't. Some of you may not listen to the sermon, but he will. 
He will be watching, and when the seed is just entering into some 
heart he will go and catch it away. Now, I tell you, my dear 
friends, before you get home the devil will meet you and say, 



GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 389 

" Don't believe it, — you can't be saved that easy " ; and you will 
have a terrible struggle with him. But I'll tell you what to do 
when he meets you. Just quote Scripture to him, and he will flee 
away at once. That's what the Saviour did. He said to him, 
" It is written — it is written," — and away went the devil in an 
instant ; he couldn't stand Scripture. And that's the only way 
to conquer him. Say to him, " It is written, and I believe the 
Word of God before I believe you, devil," — and depend on it he 
will leave you. 

It is said of David's mighty men that they were right and left- 
handed. They were wholly consecrated ; they could use their 
left or their right hands for the king. That is what we want 
in London. Men who are right-handed and left-handed for 
the King of Glory. Men who can use their eyes, and tongues, 
and ears, and everything for the Lord Jesus. 

The most powerful sermon Christ ever preached was His 
discourse to Nicodemus. I believe there have been more souls 
born again by reading the third chapter of St. John's Gospel 
than by reading any other chapter in the Bible. And that beau- 
tiful and wonderful sermon was preached to one man only ! If 
we Christians have the same mind that Christ had, not despising 
the day of small things, but each one of us doing what we can 
to bring some one to the Saviour, we shall see a great work 
accomplished. 

When Jesus, along with His little band of disciples, came to 
the grave wherein Lazarus was laid, they found it covered by a 
stone. Jesus could have removed the stone Himself; but, 
notice, He bade His followers to remove the stone. And we 
find that after the Master had restored the dead man to life, He 
also said to them : " Loose him, and let him go." The Master 
could have loosed him ; but He said to His disciples: "You loose 
him." What lesson does the Master mean to teach us by this ? 
He means to teach His followers that, whilst He alone can 
speak the word of life to dead souls, He wants us to remove the 
stone, and to loose the poor souls and let them go. He would 
have us to be co-workers with Him. 



390 GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 

When men going up in a balloon have ascended a little height, 
things down here begin to look very small indeed. What had 
seemed very grand and imposing, now seem as mere nothings ; 
and the higher they rise the smaller everything on earth appears ; 
— it gets fainter and fainter as they rise, till the railway train, dash- 
ing along at fifty miles an hour, seems like a thread, and scarcely 
appears to be moving at all, and the grand piles of buildings 
seem now like mere dots. So it is when we get near heaven: 
earth's treasures, earth's cares, look very small. 

There are but few now that say, " Here am I, Lord ; send 
me " : the cry now is, " Send some one else. Send the minister, 
send the church officers, the churchwardens, the elders ; but not 
me. I have not got the ability, the gifts, or the talents." Ah ! 
honestly say you have not got the heart ; for if the heart is 
loyal, God can use you. It is really all a matter of heart. It 
does not take God a great while to qualify a man for his work, 
if he only has the heart for it. 



Read the 103rd Psalm, and mark how the Psalmist bids us 
"forget not all His benefits." Some one has said we cannot 
remember them all, but we must not forget them all — they are 
too numerous to keep them all in mind, but let us keep some of 
them in mind. Observe five things in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th 
verses of this psalm: — (1) "He forgiveth all thine iniquities." 
(2) " He healeth all thy diseases." (3) " He redeemeth thy life 
from destruction." (4) " He crowneth thee with loving-kindness 
and tender mercies." But there are very many crowned heads 
that are still not satisfied. God, therefore, does more, — (5) " He 
satisfieth thy soul." What more can we have than that ? 

" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." I often rejoice Christ did not say this to that woman at 
the well, nor to that woman who was a sinner. If He had spoken 
it to them, people would have said, " Oh, that poor woman 
needed to be converted ; but I am a moral character— I do not 
need to be converted. Regeneration will do for harlots, thieves, 
and drunkards ; but we who are moral do not need it." But who 



GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 391 

did Christ say this to ? He said it to Nicodemus. Who was 
he ? He was one of the church dignitaries ; he stood as high 
as any man in Jerusalem, except the high priest himself. He 
belonged to the seventy rulers of the Jews ; he was a doctor of 
divinity, and taught the law. There is not one word of Scrip- 
ture against him ; he was a man that stood out before the whole 
nation as of pure and spotless character. And what does Christ 
say to him ? — " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the 
kingdom of God." 

There are some who say, " We don't have any sympathy with 
these special efforts " ; and I sympathize with that objection. I 
believe it is the privilege of the child of God to make continuous 
efforts for the salvation of others, every day throughout the 
year. 

Let no time be spent in arguments. I believe that is a work 
of the devil, to take off attention and cause delay. If a man 
comes to argue, we should go on our knees, pray with him, 
and then let him go. Job never fell until he got into an 
argument with his friends ; he could stand his boils, and all his 
other afflictions, better than an argument. 

Our Lord said on one occasion, " There is no man that hath 
left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, 
or children, or lands, for my sake and the Gospel's, but he shall 
receive a hundredfold more in this present world, and in the 
world to come life everlasting." But Peter answering said, 
" Lo, we have left all, and followed Thee." So it always is. 
We make much of our sacrifices. What had the disciples left ? 
A few old broken nets, and some boats. What did they get in 
exchange ? The kingdom of God ! 

Many of the Bible characters fell just in the things in which 
they were thought to be strongest. Moses failed in his humility, 
Abraham in his faith, Elijah in his courage, for one woman 
scared him away to that juniper tree ; and Peter, whose strong 
point was boldness, was so frightened by a maid, as to deny his 
Lord. 



392 GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 

One reason why we don't have more answers to our prayers is 
because we are not thankful enough. The Divine injunction is, 
" Be careful for nothing ; but in everything by prayer and sup- 
plication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known 
unto God." Some one has well said there are three things in 
this verse : careful for nothing— prayerful for everything — 
thankful for anything. 



" And now abideth faith, hope, charity — these three ; but the 
greatest of these is charity." Love is the greatest of God's gifts, 
and of all the Christian virtues. I don't think we shall require 
faith when we get to heaven. Before the throne of God we shall 
walk by sight, and not by faith. Nor shall we need hope there, 
as we shall have attained to the full measure of possession. Faith 
and hope will be past, but love will still reign. Therefore love 
is called the greatest. 



A friend of mine was walking along the streets one dark 
night, when he saw a man coming along with a lantern. As 
he came up close to him, he noticed by the bright light that the 
man had no eyes. He went past him ; but the thought struck 
him, " Surely that man is blind ! " He turned round and said, 
"My friend, are you not blind?" "Yes," was the answer. 
" Then what have you got the lantern for ? " " I carry the lan- 
tern," said the blind man, " that people may not stumble over 
me." Let us take a lesson from that blind man, and hold up 
our light, burning with the clear radiance of heaven, that men 
may not stumble over us. 



I once heard of two men who, under the influence of liquor, 
came down one night to where their boat was tied ; they 
wanted to return home, so they got in and began to row. They 
pulled away hard all night, wondering why they never got to the 
other side of the bay. When the grey dawn of morning broke, 
behold, they had never loosed the mooring line or raised the 
anchor ! And that's just the way with many who are striving to 
enter the kingdom of heaven. They eannot believe, because 



GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD. 393 



they are tied to this world. Cut the cord ! cut the cord ! Set 
yourselves free from the clogging weight of earthly things, and 
you will soon go on towards heaven. 



When it is dark and stormy here, strive to rise higher and 
higher, near to Christ ; and you will find it all calm there. You 
know that it is the highest mountain peaks that catch the first 
rays of the sun. So those who rise highest catch the first news 
from heaven. It is those sunny Christians who go through the 
world with smiles on their faces, that win souls. And, on the 
other hand, it is those Christians who go through the world 
hanging their heads like bulrushes, that scare people away from 
religion. Why, it's a libel on Christianity for a religious man to 
go about with such a downcast look ! What does the Master 
say ? — " My joy I leave with you, my joy I give unto you." 
Depend upon it, if our minds were stayed upon Him, we should 
have perfect peace ; and with perfect peace we should have 
perfect joy. 

I have an idea there are thousands of crownless saints in 
heaven . They just barely get in at the doors. They have, in- 
deed, been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ; but there is no 
reward for them. They have sought their own ease in this 
world ; they have not sought to work for Christ here below ; 
therefore, though admitted to heaven, they enjoy no distinguished 
reward. " They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of 
the firmament ; and they that turn many to righteousness as 
the stars for ever and ever." But none of those that have lost 
heart, and have given up working for the Master here, will shine 
as the stars, or receive the great reward hereafter. For those 
careless ones there is no bright glory, no place near the throne ; 
they have just got in at the gates — that's all ! 

Paul said he was the " chief of sinners "; and if the chief has 
gone up on high, there is hope for everybody else. The devil 
makes us believe that we are good enough without salvation, if 
he can ; and if he cannot make us believe that, he says, " You 



394 GLIMPSES INTO THE WORD, 

are so bad the Lord won't have you " ; and so he tries to make 
people believe they are either too good or too bad to be con- 
verted. 



In those words which He read in the synagogue at Nazareth, 
shortly after His baptism by John, Christ tells us His mission 
to the world : — "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He 
hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; He hath 
sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord." Our Saviour was reading from the passage in Isaiah 
lxi. i ; and He ceased reading and closed the book in the 
middle of a sentence. The verse continues, " And the day of 
vengeance of our God." Christ came to preach the Gospel. 
By-and-by He will come again, and commence to read where 
He then left off. There is an awful day coming, when those 
who scoff and jeer now will hold a very solemn prayer-meeting. 
Their prayer already stands recorded in Holy Writ. They will 
call upon the rocks and mountains to fall upon them and hide 
them from the wrath of God. 



39S 



CHAPTER XL 

NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

ONE peculiar charm of Mr. Moody's preaching is 
the fresh and lifelike style in which he tells 
Bible stories. To him those Scripture characters are 
real men and women ; and he makes them seem as 
real to his audience as to himself. 

It is a little surprising at first to see those ancient 
worthies behaving themselves like citizens of London 
or Chicago : wearing modern costumes, speaking 
English in Mr. Moody's own vernacular, and per- 
mitting him to turn their heads and hearts inside 
out, in order to show his hearers what is going on 
in there. But when the effect of the shock has 
passed away, the force and moral of their story 
begins to be appreciated as it scarcely could be, if 
set forth with Oriental stateliness of language, and 
covered with the dust of remote antiquity. 

Irreverent people sometimes laugh at the idea of 
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, tumbling into 
Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, in broadcloth coats 
and trousers, stove-pipe hats, and Wellington boots ; 
or to hear King David telling his experience, like a 
man in a Methodist class-meeting, and not always 
in grammatical style. But there is no small advan- 
tage in having these men modernised ; for thereby 



396 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

their trials and triumphs come home to men's own 
hearts, making them feel that the Scriptures are not 
out of date, but were written for the learning and 
encouragement of all ages and all people ; and lead- 
ing them to say : What God did for these old-time 
believers, He is just as willing to do for me. 

In this chapter it is proposed to give some of 
those old stories in their new dress, as Mr. Moody 
tells them. 

It must be borne in mind that he never tells a 
story merely because it is interesting, or to help fill 
up the time, but always to illustrate and enforce the 
Gospel. 

STORY OF A BLIND MAN. 

In the 1 8th chapter of the Gospel of St. Luke, you will find 
Christ was going into Jericho ; and as He drew near the gates 
of the city there was a poor blind man who sat by the wayside, 
begging people to give him a farthing, and crying out, " Have 
mercy on a poor blind man ! " This blind beggar met a man who 
said to him, " Bartimeus, I have good news to tell you." " What 
is it ? " said the beggar. " There is a man of Israel who 
can give you sight." " Oh no ! " said the blind beggar ; " there 
is no chance of my ever receiving my sight. I never shall see. 
In fact, I never saw the mother who gave me birth ; I never saw 
the wife of my bosom ; I never saw my own children. I never 
saw in this world ; but I expect to see in the world to come." 

" Let me tell you, I have just come down from Jerusalem, and 
I saw that village carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth; and I saw a 
man who was born blind, who had received his sight ; and I 
never saw a man with better sight. He doesn't even have to use 
glasses." Then hope rises for the first time in this poor man's 
heart, and he says, " Tell me how the man got his sight." 

" Oh," says the other, " Jesus first spat on the ground and 
made clay, and put it on his eyes " — why, that is enough to put 
a man's sight out, to fill his eyes with clay ! — " and then He 
old him to wash his eyes in the Pool of Siloam, and he would 



STORY OF A BLIND MAN. 397 



receive his sight. More than that, Bartimeus, He doesn't charge 
you anything: you have no fee to pay; you just tell Him what 
you want, and get you get it, without money and without price. 
It does not need dukes, or lords, or influence ; you just call 
upon Him yourself; and if He ever comes this way, don't let 
Him go back without your going to see Jesus." And Bartimeus 
said, " I will try it ; there's no harm in trying it." I can 
imagine him being led by a child to his seat as usual, and that 
he is crying out, " Please give a blind beggar a farthing." He 
hears the footsteps of the coming multitude, and inquires, Who 
is it passing ? What does the multitude mean ? They tell 
him it is Jesus of Nazareth passing by. The moment he hears 
that he says, " Why, that is the Man that gave sight to the 
blind ! " The moment it reached his ear that it was Jesus of 
Nazareth, he began to cry out at the top of his voice, "Jesus, 
thou Son of David, have mercy upon me !" Some of those who 
went before — perhaps Peter was one them — rebuked him, think- 
ing the Master was going up to Jerusalem to be crowned King, 
and did not want to be distracted. They never knew the Son 
of God when He was here. He would hush every harp in 
heaven to hear a sinner pray ; no music would delight Him so 
much. But the blind man still lifted up his voice, and cried 
louder, " Thou Son of David, have mercy on me ! " and the 
prayer reached the ears of the Son of God, as prayer always 
will ; and they led the poor blind man to Him. Well, when 
Jesus heard the blind beggar, He commanded him to be brought. 
So they ran to him, and said, " Be of good cheer : the Master 
calls you ; He has a blessing for you." When Jesus saw 
him He said, "What can I do for you?" "Lord, that I 
may receive my sight." "You shall have it": and the 
Lord gave it to him. And now the beggar follows with the 
crowd, glorifying God. I can imagine he sang as sweetly as 
Mr. Sankey ; no one sang sweeter than he when he shouted, 
" Hosanna to the Son of David ! " — no one sang louder than this 
one who had received his sight. Then he follows on with the 
crowd, which we see pressing into the gates of the city. I can 
imagine when he gets into the city he says to himself, " I will 
go down and see Mrs. Bartimeus," — having, of course, after all 
those years of blindness, a curiosity to see what his wife looked 
like, 



398 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

As he is passing down the street, a man meets him, and turns 
round and says, " Bartimeus, is that you ? " 

" Yes ; it's me." 

"Well, I thought it was, and yet I thought my eyes must 
deceive me. How did you get your sight ? " 

" I just met Jesus of Nazareth outside the walls of the city ? 
and I asked Him to have mercy on me ; and He gave me my 
sight." 

" Jesus of Nazareth ! is He in this part of the country ? " 

" Yes ; He is on His way to Jerusalem. He is now going 
down to the eastern gate." 

" I should like to see Him," says the man, and away he runs 
down the street ; but he cannot get a glimpse of Him, being 
little of stature, on account of the great throng round Him. 
He runs to a sycamore tree, and says to himself, " If I get up 
there and hide, without any one seeing me, He cannot get by 
without my having a good look at Him." A great many rich 
men do not like to be seen coming to Jesus. Well, there he is 
in the sycamore tree, on a branch hanging right over the high- 
way ; and he says to himself, " He cannot get by without my 
having a good look at Him." All at once the crowd comes in 
sight. He looks at John— "That's not Him"; he looks at Peter — 
" That's not Him." Then he sees One who is fairer than the 
sons of men. " That's Him ! " And Zacchseus, just peeping out 
from amongst the branches, looks down upon that wonderful — 
yes, that mighty God-Man, in amazement. At last the crowd 
comes to the tree, and it looks as if Christ is going by ; but 
He stops right under the tree. All at once He looks up and 
sees Zacchseus, and says to him, "Zacchseus, make haste 
and come down." I can imagine Zacchseus says to himself, — 
" I wonder who told Him my name. I was never intro- 
duced to Him." But Christ knew all about him. Sinner ! 
Christ knows all about you ; He knows your name and your 
house. Do not think God does not know you. If you would 
try to hide from Him, bear in mind that you cannot do so. 
He knows where each one of you is ; He knows all about your 
sins. Well, He said to Zacchseus, "Make haste and come down." 
He may have added, " This is the last time I shall pass this way, 
Zacchseus." That is the way He speaks to sinners, — " This may 
be the last time I shall pass this way ; this may be your last 



THE STORY OF MEPHIBOSHETH. 399 

chance of eternity." He may be passing away from some soul 
to-night. Oh sinner ! make haste and come down and receive 
Him. There are some people in this nineteenth century who do 
not believe in sudden conversions. I should like them to tell 
me where Zacchaeus was converted. He certainly was not 
converted when he went up into the tree ; he certainly was 
converted when he came down. He must have been converted 
somewhere between the branches and the ground. The Lord 
converted him just right there. People say they do not believe 
in sudden conversions ; and that if a man is converted suddenly 
he won't hold out — he won't be genuine. I wish we had a few 
men converted like Zacchaeus in London ; it would make no 
small stir. When a man begins to make restitution, it is a 
pretty good sign of conversion. Let men give back money 
dishonestly obtained in London, and see how quick people will 
believe in conversion. Zacchaeus gave half his goods to the 
poor. What would be said if some of the rich men of London 
did that ? Zacchaeus gave half his goods all at once ; and he 
says, " If I have taken anything from any man falsely, I restore 
him fourfold." I think that is the other half. But to get 
Christ is worth more than all his wealth. I imagine the next 
morning one of the servants of Zacchaeus going with a cheque 
for ,£ 100, and saying, "My master a few years ago took from 
you wrongfully about ^25, and this is restitution money." 
That would give confidence in Zacchaeus's conversion. I wish 
a few cases like that would happen in London, and then people 
would not go on talking against sudden conversions. 



THE STORY OF MEPHIBOSHETH. 

1 Samuel xx. 14, 15 ; and 2 Samuel ix. 

There is a story, my friends, in the books of Samuel — 
away back as far as the time of the kings of Israel- — which 
will help us to understand the Gospel. It is about a man of 
the name of Mephibosheth. 

You remember what a hard time David had when Saul was 
hunting him to kill him, just as men hunt game. 

Well : one day David and his good friend Jonathan were 



400 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

taking a walk together in the fields. Saul was very angry, and 
was bent on killing David ; but his son Jonathan was looking 
out for a chance to save him. It had been revealed to him that 
David was to be king after his father, instead of himself; but 
this did not hinder his love for David. It must have been real, 
true friendship, that could stand that sort of thing ! 

After they had agreed upon a sign by which David was to 
know whether it was safe for him to stay around the court of 
the king, where he could see his friend once in a while ; or 
whether he must leave, and go off into the cave of Adullam, 
Jonathan says to him, — 

" David, it has been revealed to me that you are to be king 
after my father. Now, I want you to promise me one thing : 
when you come to the throne, if any of the house of Saul are 
alive, I want you to be good to them, for my sake." 

" I'll do that, of course/' said David. So he made a solemn 
covenant to that effect, and then he went off to the cave of 
Adullam, to get out of the way of Saul, who was bound to kill 
him if he could. 

But God took care of David. You never can kill or harm a 
man, if God is taking care of him. 

About four years after that, David heard that there had been 
a great battle over by Mount Gilboa, and that the Philistines 
had beaten the Israelites with great slaughter, and that Saul 
and Jonathan were both dead. So he got his men together, 
and went out after the enemies of the Lord and of Israel ; and 
it was not a great while before he had turned the tables on them, 
and set up his kingdom at Hebron. 

It must have been pretty near fourteen years after that before 
David remembered his promise to his old friend Jonathan. 
It is a great deal easier to make promises than to keep them. 
How many broken vows has God written down against you 
to-night ? But one day the king was walking in his palace at 
Jerusalem, where he had removed his capital ; and all at once he 
happened to think of that promise. It is a good thing God 
does not forget His promises that way. 

" That's too bad ! " said David. " I forgot all about that 
promise. I have been so busy fighting these Philistines, and 
fixing things up, that I have not had time to think of anything 
else." So he called his servants in great haste, and said, " Do 



THE STORY OF MEPHIBOSHETH 401 

any of you know whether there is any of Saul's family 
living ? " 

One of them said there was an old servant of Saul's by the 
name of Ziba, and maybe he could tell. 

" Go and tell him I want him, right away." 

Pretty soon Ziba came ; and David said, " Ziba, do you know 
whether there is anybody of the house of Saul in my kingdom ?" 
Ziba said there was one he knew of — a son of Jonathan, by the 
name of Mephibosheth, 

Oh how that name, Jonathan, must have smitten the heart 
of David ! One of the sons of his old friend living in his 
kingdom for as much as fourteen years, and he had never 
known it ! What would Jonathan think of him for forgetting his 
promise that way I 

" Go, fetch him ! " says David ; " go quick. Tell him I want 
him. I want to show him the kindness of God." 

Now, my friends, where do you suppose Mephibosheth was 
all this time ? Why, he was down at Lo-debar. Did you ever 
hear of that place ? There may be some sailors here : did you 
ever come across that port ? When you have travelled on the 
railway, did any of you ever stop at that station ? 

Ah ! yes : that is where the whole human race are until they 
come to Christ for salvation ; away down at Lo-debar, — which 
means, a place of no pasture. 

The king is in haste to keep his promise now. I seem to see 
them hurrying off ; maybe they take the king's own chariot, and 
rattle away to find this son of Jonathan. 

When they reached the little out-of-the-way place, I fancy 
there was a great commotion. 

" Where's Mephibosheth ? The king wants him." 

Poor fellow ! when he heard that he hung down his head He 
was afraid the king wanted to kill him, because he was of the 
house of Saul, his old enemy. 

Ah ! my friends ; that's just the way sinners receive Christ's 
offers of salvation. They think God hates them, and wants to 
cut their heads off. But that is a great mistake. God loves 
them for Christ's sake, a great deal more than David loved 
Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake. I never knew a sinner to 
take the Gospel right. They always think, at first, that it is too 
good to be true. 
18 



4©2 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

"Don't be afraid," said the servants. "The king says he 
wants to show you the kindness of God. He is in a great hurry 
to see you ; so get ready, and jump right into the chariot. Don't 
you see the king has sent his own chariot to fetch you ? " 

It did begin to look as if the king meant no harm to him. 
But poor Mephibosheth had another difficulty. He was lame in 
both feet. He was a little fellow when David came to the 
throne ; and an old servant, who was afraid that all the house of 
Saul were going to be killed, took him up and ran away to hide 
him. Somehow he managed to drop the lad, and lamed him in 
both feet. 

And now I can see poor Mephibosheth looking down at his 
feet. Maybe the toes turned in,— or he was club-footed. And 
he says to himself, " I am not fit to go to the king. I am a poor 
cripple. I am not fit to be seen among the tall, handsome 
servants of the palace in Jerusalem." 

That's just the way with a convicted sinner. He is all the 
time thinking of his own unworthiness, and saying to himself 
that he isn't fit to be saved. 

" Never mind your lame feet, Mephibosheth ; so long as the 
king sends for you, it's all right." So they take him up, and put 
him into the chariot, and start for Jerusalem on a run. 

As soon as the king sees him, he takes him in his arms, and 
cries out, — 

" Oh Mephibosheth, the son of my dear old friend Jonathan ! 
you shall have all that belonged to the house of Saul \ and you 
shall live with me here in my palace ! " 

What a happy man he must have been to hear that ! Sinner, 
that is just what God says to the soul that comes to him in 
Jesus Christ. He takes us in His arms ; He gives us a great 
fortune of love and grace ; and He promises that we shall live 
with Him in His heavenly palace for ever. 

Some people think that Mephibosheth, like certain low- 
spirited Christians, after he went to live with the king, must 
have been all the time worrying over his lame feet. But I don't 
think so. He couldn't help it ; and if David didn't mind it, it 
was all right. So I think that when he dined with him in state, 
with the great lords and ladies all around him, he just stuck 
his club-feet under the table, and looked the king right in the. 
face, 



THE STORY OF BAR ABB AS. 403 

That is the Gospel, my friends. We are God's enemies, and 
the children of His enemies. We are lame, and blind, and 
wretched, and ragged, and hateful by reason of our sins. But 
the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ has been made; and 
now God sends for you, poor sinner, to come in Christ's name 
and eat bread at His table, and be in His house, and in His 
heart for ever. Will you come ? Will you come now f 



THE STORY OF BARABBAS. 

I HAVE often thought what a night Barabbas must have 
spent just before the day when Christ was crucified. 

As the sun goes down, he says to himself : "To-morrow ! — only 
to-morrow ! And I must die on the cross. They will hang me 
up before a crowd of people ; they will drive nails through my 
hands and feet ; they will break my legs with bars of iron ; 
and in that awful torture I shall die before this time to-morrow, 
and go up to the judgment with all my crimes upon me." 

Maybe, they let his mother come to see him once more before 
dark. Perhaps he had a wife and children, and they came to 
see him for the last time. 

He couldn't sleep at all that night. He could hear somebody 
hammering in the prison-yard, and knew they must be making 
the cross. 

He would start up every now and then, thinking he heard the 
footsteps of the officers coming for him. 

At last the light of the morning looks in through the bars of 
his prison. 

" To-day — this very day — they will open that door and lead 
me away to be crucified ! " 

Pretty soon he hears them coming. No mistake this time. 
They are unbarring the iron door. He hears them turning the 
key in the rusty lock. The door swings open ; there are the 
soldiers. 

Good-bye to life and hope ! Death, horrible death now ! — and, 
after death, what will there be then ? 

The officer of the guard speaks to him : — " Barabbas, you are 
free ! " 

He hears the strange words, but they make very little impres- 
sion on him. He is so near dead with fear and horror, that the 



404 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

good news doesn't reach him. He hears it ; but thinks it is a 
foolish fancy. He is asleep and dreaming. He stands gazing 
a moment at the soldiers, and then he comes to himself. 

" Don't laugh at me ! don't make sport of me ! Take me 
away and crucify me ; but don't tear my soul to pieces ! " 

Again the officer speaks : " You are free! Here — the door is 
open : go out ; go home." 

Now he begins to take in the truth ; but it is so wonderful a 
thing to get out of the clutches of the Roman law, that he is 
afraid to believe the good news. And so he begins to doubt, 
and to ask how it can be. 

They tell him that Pilate has promised the Jews the release 
of one prisoner that day ; and that the Jews have chosen him 
instead of one Jesus of Nazareth, who was condemned to be 
crucified. 

Now the poor man begins to weep. This breaks his heart. 
He knows this Jesus. He has seen Him do some of His 
miracles. He was in the crowd picking pockets when Jesus 
fed the five thousand hungry people. 

" What ! that just man to die — and I, a thief, a highwayman, 
a murderer, to go free ! " And in the midst of his joy at his own 
release, his heart breaks at the thought that his life is saved at 
such a cost. 

Sinner, that is the Gospel. Christ died for you, " the just for 
the unjust." " He was bruised for our iniquities, and by His 
stripes we are healed." 

Come out of your prison ; throw off the chains of sin. You 
were justly condemned, but Jesus died for you. Let your heart 
break in penitence ; weep tears of love and joy. 



ELIJAH AND THE PRIESTS OF BAAL. 

Let us go to Carmel for a few minutes. 

King Ahab had forsaken the God of Israel, and all the court 
people and " upper ten " had followed his example. 

But there was an old prophet out in the mountains, to whom 
God said : " Go to Ahab, and tell him the heavens shall be shut 
up and there shall be no rain." 

Away he goes to the wicked king. He bursts in upon him 
like a clap of thunder, gives his message, and hurries away. 



ELIJAH AND THE PRIESTS OF BAAL. 40$ 

I suppose Ahab laughed at the old prophet. " What ! no 
more rain ? Why, the fellow must be crazy ! " 

Pretty soon the weather gets very dry. The earth is parched, 
and begins to crack open. The rivers have but little water in 
them, and the brooks dry up altogether. The trees die ; all 
the grass perishes, and the cattle die too. Famine ; starvation ; 
death ! If rain doesn't come pretty soon, there won't be a live 
man or woman left in all the kingdom. 

One day the king was talking with the prophet Obadiah. 

You see he did have one good man near him, along with all 
the prophets of the false god. Almost anybody likes to have 
one good man within reach, even if he is ever so bad. He may 
be wanted in a hurry some time. 

" See here, Obadiah," says King Ahab ; " you go one way, and 
I'll go another, and we'll see if we can't find some water some- 
where." 

Obadiah hadn't got a great way before Elijah bursts out upon 
him. 

" Oh, Elijah ! is that you ? Ahab has been hunting for you 
everywhere, and couldn't find you. He has sent off into all the 
kingdoms about, to have them fetch you if you were there." 

" Yes ; I'm here," says Elijah. "You go and tell Ahab I want 
to see him." 

" I dare not do that," says Obadiah ; " for just as soon as I 
tell him you are here, the Spirit will catch you away and take 
you off somewhere else ; and then the king will be very angry, 
and maybe he'll kill me." 

" No," says Elijah. " As the Lord liveth, I will meet Ahab 
face to face this day." 

So Obadiah hurries off to find Ahab, and tells him he has 
seen the prophet. 

"What! Elijah?" 

"Yes." 

" Why didn't you bring him along ? " 

" He wouldn't come. He says he wants you to come to 
him." 

Ahab wasn't used to have people talk that way to him ; but he 
was anxious to see the prophet, so he went. And when he sees 
him he is very angry, and cries, " Art thou he that troubleth 
Israel ? " 



406 NEW STORIES PROM AN OLD BOOK. 

" Not at all," says Elijah. " You are the man that is troubling 
Israel — going off after Baal, and leading ever so many of the 
people with you. Now, we have had enough of this sort of thing. 
Some people are praying to God, and some are praying to Baal, 
and we must have this question settled. You just bring all your 
prophets and all the priests of Baal up to Mount Carmel, and I 
also will come. We will make us each an altar, and offer sacrifice 
on it ; and the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God." 

" Agreed/' says Ahab ; and off he goes to tell his priests and 
get ready for the trial. 

I fancy that was a great day when that question was decided. 

All the places of business were closed, and everybody was 
going up to Mount Carmel. There must have been more people 
on Mount Carmel than there are to-day at the races.* A better 
class of people too ! 

There were eight hundred and fifty of the prophets and priests 
of Baal altogether. I fancy I can see them going up in a grand 
procession, with the king in his chariot at their head. 

" Fine-looking men, ain't they ? " says one man to another as 
they go by. " They'll be able to do great things up there on the 
mountain." 

But there Elijah marched, all alone : a rough man, clad in the 
skins of beasts, with a staff in his hand. No banners, no pro- 
cession, no great men in his train ! But the man who could 
hold the keys of heaven for three years and six months was not 
afraid to be alone. 

Now says Elijah to the people, " How long halt ye between 
two opinions ? Let the priests of Baal build them an akar and 
offer sacrifice, but put no fire under ; and I will do the same : 
and the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God." 

So the priests of Baal build their altar. 

I am sure if God hadn't held him back, Satan would have 
brought up a little spark out of hell to set that sacrifice on fire. 
But God wouldn't let him. 

Then they begin to pray : " Oh Baal, hear us ! Oh Baal, hear 
us!" 

Elijah might have said, "Why haven't you prayed to Baal 

* This was given on Derby Day, at the Opera House, Haymarket, 
London. 



THE LEPER. 407 



for water this dry weather ? You might just as well have asked 
him for water as for fire ." 

After a long time they begin to get hoarse. 

"You must pray louder than that, if you expect Baal to hear 
you," says the old prophet. "Maybe he is asleep : pray louder, 
so as to wake him up." 

Poor fellows ! they haven't any voice left ; so they begin to 
pray in blood. They cut themselves with knives, and lift their 
streaming hands and arms to Baal. But no fire comes down. 

It is getting towards sundown. 

The prophet of the Lord builds an altar. Mind ; he doesn't 
have anything to do with the altar of Baal, but builds an entirely 
different one, on the ruins of the altar of the Lord which had 
been broken down. 

" We won't have anybody saying there is any trick about this 
thing," says the prophet. So they bring twelve barrels of water 
and pour over the altar. I don't know how they managed to 
get so much water ; but they did it. 

Then Elijah prays : " Oh God of Abraham and of Isaac and 
of Jacob, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel." 

He didn't have to pray very loud. God heard him at once, 
and — down came the fire ! / It burnt up the sacrifice, burnt up 
the wood, burnt up the water, and burnt up the very stones of 
the altar. Jehovah is God : nobody can halt any longer. 

Ah ! but some of you say, " I too would have decided for God 
if I had been on Mount Carmel that day." My friends, Calvary 
is a great deal more wonderful than Carmel. The sacrifice of 
Christ on the cross is more wonderful than the sacrifice which 
was burned on that altar. 

Decide for Christ now, with Calvary in sight. Choose j^ this 
day whom ye will serve. 



THE LEPER. 



See that poor leper ! Do you know what an awful thing 
the leprosy is ? A disease so terrible that it separates its victim 
from all the world, and makes him an outcast, even from his 
home. Every one is afraid of him. His disease is so con- 
tagious, that to touch him, or even to breathe the air near him, 



408 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

is dangerous ; and so these poor afflicted wretches have to go 
away and live in caves and deserts by themselves. They sit by 
the wayside afar off, calling to the passers-by for charity, — who 
sometimes throw them a piece of money, and hurry away lest 
they also come into that terrible plight. Here is a poor man 
who finds the marks of what he thinks is this terrible disease 
upon his body. According to the law, he must go to the priest 
and be examined. Alas ! the priest says it is the leprosy 
— nothing else. 

Now the poor man, with broken heart, turns away from the 
Temple, and goes to his house to say good-bye to his wife, and 
to take his children to his arms once more, before he goes away 
to spend the long years in the wilderness alone, or with other 
lepers like himself, until death shall come to deliver him from 
his sufferings. What a sorry house is that ! Surely this is 
worse than death itself. He goes out of his door with no hope 
of ever entering it again. He walks the street by himself, and 
if any one comes near, he lifts up his voice in that mournful 
cry, " Unclean ! Unclean ! " Out of the gates of the city he 
goes, away from all his friends and acquaintances, carrying 
with him the sorrow of separation and the seeds of death. 
One day he sees a crowd passing along the road, but he dares 
not go near enough to inquire what it is. All at once he 
happens to think it may be that Prophet of Nazareth whom he 
has heard of — that same Man that, people said, could open the 
eyes of blind men, make lame men to walk, and who had even 
raised the son of the widow from death, over there at Nain. 
If only it were He ! At any rate he will take the chances, and 
cry out after Him ; and so he shouts, at the top of his voice, 
" Have mercy upon me ! " All the rest of the crowd are afraid 
of him ; but Jesus, who is in the midst, hears some one call- 
ing ; and, just as He always did when anybody wanted any- 
thing of Him, He stopped to find out what it was. He is not 
afraid of the leper ; and so, while the rest of the crowd stand 
away by themselves, He calls the poor fellow up to Him and 
asks him what he wants ; and the leper, with his heart full of 
anxious hope, replies, " Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me 
clean." " I will," says Jesus : " be thou clean! " A strange sense 
of health and strength suddenly comes over the man. He looks at 
his hands, and finds the leprosy is all gone. He begins to pour 



THE WIDOW'S SON. 409 

out his heart in thanks to Jesus, who sends him away to the 
priests, saying, " Go, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift 
that Moses commanded. 

Now I seem to see that cleansed leper hurrying away to show 
himself to the priest, to be pronounced cured, according to the 
law ; and then hastening to his little home, to see his wife and 
children once more. He bursts into the house, weeping for joy. 
He stretches out his arms to his wife and little ones, saying, " I 
am clean ! I am clean ! Jesus did it — Jesus of Nazareth." 

Sinner, how glad you would be if Jesus had made you clean 
from the leprosy of sin ! — and He is just as willing to cleanse you 
as He was to cleanse this poor leper. Come to Him just now. 
Ask Him to cleanse you, and hear Him say, u I will : be thou 
clean ! " 



THE WIDOWS SON. 

Think of that poor widow at Nain ! She is an old woman 
now ; and her only son, who is the staff of her life, is sick. How 
she watches him ; sits up all night to see that he has his medicine 
at the right time ; sits by his bedside all day, fanning him, keep- 
ing away the flies, moistening his parched lips with water ! 
Everything he asks for, she brings. The very best doctor in 
Nain is sent for ; and when he comes and feels the pulse of the 
young man, and looks at his tongue, he shakes his head ; and 
then the poor woman knows there is no hope for her boy. What 
an awful thought ! My son, my only son must die : what will 
become of me then ? Sure enough, the doctor is right ; and in 
a little while the fever comes to its crisis, and the poor boy 
dies, with his head upon his mother's bosom. The people come 
in to try to comfort the poor woman ; but it is of no use. Her 
heart is broken. She wishes she were dead too. 

Some of you know what it is to look your last upon the faces 
of those you love. Some of you mothers have wept hot tears 
upon the cold faces of your sons. 

Well : they make him ready for burial ; and when the time 
comes, they celebrate the funeral service, and put him on 
the bier to carry him away to the grave. What a sad pro- 
cession ! Just as they come out of the city gates, they see 
a little company of thirteen dusty-looking travellers, coming up 
18* 



4io NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK, 



the road. There is One among them, tall and far fairer than 
the sons of men. Who can He be ? He is moved with com- 
passion when He sees this little funeral procession ; and it does 
not take Him long to find out that that woman who walks next 
the bier is a poor widow, whose only son she is following to his 
grave. He tells the bearers to put down the bier ; and while the 
mother wonders what is to be done, He bends tenderly over the 
dead man, and speaks to him in a low, sweet voice, " Arise ! " 
And the dead man hears Him. His body begins to move : 
the man who was dead is struggling with his graveclothes ; 
they unbind them, and now he sits up. He leaps off the 
bier, catches a sight of his mother, remembers that he was dead 
and is now alive again ; takes her in his arms, kisses her again 
and again, and then turns to look at the Stranger who has 
wrought this miracle upon him. He is ready to do anything for 
that Man — ready to follow Him to the death. But Jesus does 
not ask that of him. He knows his mother needs him ; and so 
He does not take him away to be one of His disciples, but gives 
him back to his old mother. 

I would have liked to see that young man re-entering the 
city of Nain, arm-in-arm with his mother. What do you sup- 
pose he said to the people, who looked at him with wonder ? 
Would he not confess that Jesus of Nazareth had raised him 
from the dead ? Would he not go everywhere, declaring what 
the Lord had done for his dead body ? Oh how I love to 
preach Christ, who can stand over all the graves, and say to all 
the dead bodies, " Arise ! " How I pity the poor infidel, who 
has no Christ ; who goes down to his death without any hope of 
resurrection ! Is there a poor widow here to-night ? Christ will 
have compassion on you. Your son is dead, maybe. Well, He 
will raise him up also at the last day, and you along with him ; 
and give him back to you, and you to him, if you both have 
believed in Jesus, and given Him your hearts. 



THE STORY OF NAAMAN. 

I have been reading to you about a person who was a great 
man in his own country — a very honourable man, one whom 



THE STOR Y OF N A AM AN. 41 1 

the king delighted to honour. He stood high in position, he 
was captain of the hosts of the king of Syria ; but he was a 
leper j and that threw a blight over his whole life. There was no 
physician to help him in all Syria. None of the eminent doctors 
in Damascus could do him any good. Neither could any in 
Jerusalem. But I will tell you what they had in Syria : they had 
one of God's children there — and she was a little girl. Naaman 
knew nothing about her, though she was one of his household. 
I can imagine this little Israelite, one day, as she said to Mrs. 
Naaman, her mistress, that there was a prophet in her country 
that could cure her master of his leprosy. " Why ! " says the 
mistress, "what are you talking about ? Did you ever hear of 
anybody being cured of leprosy ? " " Ah ! " said the little girl, 
" ifs true, I can assure you : we have got physicians down there 
that can cure anything." So at last some one told the king 
what the little maid of Israel had said. Now Naaman stood 
tigh in the king's favour, for he had just won a great victory. 
He was called a lord ; perhaps he was a prince — a sort of Sfyrian 
Prince Bismarck, who stood near the throne. So the king said, 
" You had better go down to Samaria, and see if there is any- 
thing in it, and I will give you letters of introduction to the king 
of Israel." 

Yes, he would give Naaman letters of introduction to the king. 
That's just man's idea. Of course, if anybody could help him 
it was a king. Of course the king had power both with God and 
man. Oh, my friends, it's a good deal better to know a man that 
knows God ! A man acquainted with God has more power than 
any earthly king. 

Away goes Naaman down to Samaria with his letter of 
introduction, and he takes with him a bag of gold and silver. 
That's man's idea again : he is going to pay the great doctor. 
And he took about ,£100,000 sterling, as far as I can make it out, 
to pay this doctor's bill. There are a good many men who 
would willingly pay that sum, if with it they could buy the favour 
of God, and get rid of the curse of sin. Yes, if money could 
do it, how many would buy salvation ! But, thank God, it is not 
in the market for sale ! You must buy it on God's terms, and that 
is "without money and without price." Naaman found that out. 
My dear friends, did you ever ask yourselves which is the worst 
— the leprosy of the body or the leprosy of sin? Why, for 



412 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

my own part I would a thousand times sooner have the leprosy 
eating my eyes out, and eating off feet and arms ; I would 
rather be loathsome in the sight of my fellow-men than die 
with the leprosy of sin in my soul, and be banished from 
God for ever. The leprosy of the body is bad, but the leprosy 
of sin is a thousand times worse. It has thrown the angels out 
of heaven ; it has ruined the best and strongest men that ever 
lived in the world. 

There is one thing about Naaman that I like — and that is, his 
earnestness of purpose. He was thoroughly in earnest. A good 
many people say, " Oh, I don't like such and such a minister ; I 
should like to know where he comes from, and what he has done,, 
and whether any bishop has ever laid his hands on his head." 
My dear friends, never mind the minister ; it's the message you 
want. Why, if some one were to send me a message, and the 
news were important, I shouldn't stop to ask about the mes- 
senger who brought it ; I should want to read the news ; I should 
look at the letter and its contents, and not at the boy who 
brought it. And so it is with God's message. The good news 
is everything, the minister nothing. The Syrians looked down 
with contempt on the Israelites ; and yet this great man was 
willing to take the good news from the lips of this poor little slave. 
Why, if I got lost in London, I should be willing to ask anybody 
which way to go— even if it were only a poor shoeblack. It is 
the way I want, not the person who directs me. But there was 
one drawback in Naaman's case : though he was willing to take 
the advice of the little girl, he was not willing to take the remedy. 

The stumbling-block of pride stood in his way. The remedy 
the prophet offered him was a terrible blow to his pride. I have 
no doubt he expected a grand reception from the king of Israel, 
to whom he brought letters of introduction. He had been vic- 
torious on many a field of battle, and held high rank in the army 
— perhaps we may call him Major- General Naaman of Syria ; or 
he might have been higher in rank even than that. He had a 
letter of introduction from the king himself, and of course he 
would be received with high honours. But instead of the king 
rushing out to meet him, when he heard of Naaman's arrival 
and his object, he rent his mantle in a rage, and said : " Am I 
a God, that I can kill and make alive ? " But at last the king 
bethinks himself of Elisha the prophet ; and he says, " There 



THE STORY OF N A AM AN. 413 

is a man in my kingdom who may be able to help you and cure 
your leprosy." Now I can imagine Naaman's pride reasoning 
thus : " Surely the prophet will feel very much exalted and 
nattered that I, the great Syrian General, should come and call 
upon him." 

He drives up in grand style to the prophet's house ; and, after 
awhile, as nobody seems to be coming out to meet him, he sends in 
his message : "Tell the prophet Major-General Naaman of Syria 
has arrived, and wishes to see him." Elisha takes it very 
coolly. He does not come out to see him; but, as soon as he 
learns his errand, he sends his servant to say : "Dip seven times 
in the river Jordan, and you shall be clean." What a terrible 
blow to his pride ! 

I can imagine him saying to his servant — "What did you say? 
Did I understand you aright ? Dip seven times in Jordan ! 
Why, we call the river Jordan a ditch in our country !" But the 
only answer he got was, " My lord says, Go and dip seven times 
in Jordan." I can fancy his indignation as he asks — "Are 
not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all 
the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?" 
So he turned and went away in a rage. The fact was, Jordan 
never had any great reputation as a river ; it flowed into the 
Dead Sea, and that sea never had a harbour to it. And its banks 
were not half so beautiful as those of the rivers of Damascus. 
Yes, it was a dreadful blow to his pride ! The truth was, that 
Damascus was one of the most beautiful cities in the world ; and 
it is said that when Mahomet first saw it, he turned his head 
away, for fear it should lead his thoughts away from heaven. 

Naaman went off in a rage ; he got very angry. But I don't 
think much of that; for, if you notice when a man turns away in 
anger, he generally cools down and comes back again. 

He thought the prophet would have come out to him very 
humble and very solemn, and bid him do some great thing. 
Instead of that, Elisha, who was very likely busy writing, 
didn't even come to the door or the window : he merely sent 
out the message — " Tell him to dip seven times in the Jordan." 

And away he went — saying "/ thought; I thought; I thought." 
I have heard that tale so often, that I am tired of it. I will tell 
you just what I think about it, and what I advise you to do — 
" Give it up. Take God's words, God's thoughts, God's ways. 



414 NEW STORIES FROM AN OLD BOOK. 

A man to be converted has to give up his will, his ways, and his 
thoughts. I have often noticed that when a man says : " If 
ever I am converted, it will be this way or that," God leads him 
in quite a contrary direction. 

Whilst Naaman was turning the matter over in his mind, and 
thinking what was best to be done, one of his servants came 
and said — and a very sensible remark it was : " My lord, if the 
prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not 
have done it ? how much rather, then, when he saith to thee, 
Wash and be clean ! " Yes, and there's a deal of truth in that. 
Why, if Elisha had said to him, " Go back to Syria on your 
hands and knees," he would most likely have done it. If he 
had said, " Go back all the way on one foot," he would have 
tried to do it. Or if he had said, " Give me a hundred thousand 
pounds for the medicine I prescribe, and thou shalt be cleansed," 
no doubt he would have done it . But to tell him merely to dip 
in the river Jordan seven times — why, it was absurd on the face 
of it ! " Why, if there is such cleansing power in the waters of 
Jordan, does not every leper in Israel go down and dip in them, 
and be healed ? " " Well," says the servant, " you have come 
a hundred and fifty miles ; and now don't you think you had 
better do what he tells you ? " 

His anger is cooling down ; and he says, " Well, I think I 
might as well try it." That's the starting-point of his faith ; but 
still he thought it a foolish thing, and could not bring himself 
to believe that the result would be what the prophet had said. 

Naaman's will was conquered at last. He got to that point 
where he was willing to obey; and the Scripture tells us 
"to obey is better than to sacrifice." So he goes down to the 
river and takes the first dip ; and as he comes up, I can imagine 
him looking at himself, and saying to his servant, " There ! there 
I am, no better than I was when I went in. If one-seventh of 
the leprosy was gone, I should be content." Down he goes 
a second time, and he comes up puffing and blowing, as much 
a leper as ever ; and so he goes down again and again, 
the third and fourth and fifth time, with the same result — 
as much a leper as ever. When he comes up the sixth 
time, he looks at himself, and says, " Ah ! no better. What 
a fool I have made of myself! How they must all laugh at 
me ! I wouldn't have the generals and aristocracy of Damascus 



THE STORY OP N A AM AN. 415 



know that I have been dipping in this way in Jordan for all the 
world. However, as I have gone so far, I'll make the seventh 
plunge." He has not altogether lost faith ; and down he goes 
the seventh time, and up he comes again. He looks at himself, 
and shouts aloud for joy. " Lo, I am well ! My leprosy is all 
gone — all gone ! My flesh has come again as that of a little 
child. I never knew such a thing. I never felt so happy in all 
my life. I thought I was a great and a happy man when I 
accomplished that victory; but, thank God ! praise God ! I am 
the happiest man alive." So he comes up out of Jordan and 
puts on his clothes, and goes back to the prophet, and wants to 
pay him. 

That's just the old story: Naaman wants to give money for his 
cure. How many people want to do the same now-a-days ! 
Why, it would have spoiled the story of grace, if the prophet had 
taken anything ! You may give a thank-offering to God's cause, 
not because you can be saved, but because you are saved. But 
the prophet refused to take anything ; and I can imagine no one 
felt more rejoiced than Elisha did. So Naaman starts back to 
Damascus, a very different man than he was when he left it. 
The dark cloud has gone from his mind ; he i3 no longer a 
leper, in fear of dying from a loathsome disease. He lost the 
leprosy in Jordan when he did what the man of God told him ; 
and if you obey the voice of God, even while I am speaking to 
you, the burden of your sins will fall from off you, and you shall 
be cleansed. It is all done by the power of faith. 



*!& 



MR. MOODY'S ADDRESS ON THE PENITENT 
THIEF. 

I AM going to take for my text this morning, a man; the last 
one whom Jesus saved before He went back to heaven ; 
and the fact that He saved such a man at all, ought to give 
every one of us a great deal of hope and comfort. This man 
was a thief, a highwayman, a murderer, perhaps ; and yet Christ 
takes him with Him when He ascends to glory : and if He is 
not ashamed of such a man, surely no class of sinners need to 
feel that they are left out. 

It is a blessed fact, that all kinds of men and women are 
represented among the converts in the Gospels, and almost all 
of them were converted suddenly. Very many people object 
to sudden conversions ; but you may read in the Acts of the 
Apostles of eight thousand people converted in two days. 
That seems to me rather quick work. If all the Christians 
here this morning would only consecrate themselves to the 
work of Christ, they might be the means of converting as many 
as that, before the week is out. Now let us look at Christ 
hanging on His cross between two thieves, — the Scribes and 
Pharisees wagging their heads and jeering at Him, His disci- 
ples gone away, and only His mother and one or two other 
women in sight, to cheer Him with their presence, amongst all 
this crowd of enemies. Hear those spiteful Pharisees calling 
out to Him, " If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the 
cross, and we will believe on Thee " ; and the account says that 
the two thieves cast the same in His teeth. 

So then the first thing that we know of our man is, that he is 
a reviler of Christ. You would think that he ought to be doing 
something else at such a time as this ; but hanging there in 
the midst of his tortures, and certain to be dead, in a few hours, 
instead of confessing his sins and preparing to meet the God 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 417 

whose law he had broken all his life — instead of that, he is 
abusing God's only Son. Surely this man cannot sink any 
lower, until he sinks into hell ! 

The next thing we hear of him, he appears to be under con- 
viction. Nobody is ever converted till he is convicted. In 
Luke xxiii. 39, 40, we read : "And one of the malefactors which 
were hanged railed on Him ; saying, If Thou be the Christ, 
save Thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, 
saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same 
condemnation ? And we indeed justly ; for we receive the due 
reward of our deeds : but this man hath done nothing amiss." 

Now what do you suppose it was that made this great change 
in this man's feelings, in these few hours? Christ had not 
preached him a sermon — had given him no exhortation. The 
darkness had not yet come on ; the earth had not opened its 
mouth ; the business of death was going on as usual ; the crowd 
were still there, mocking, and hissing, and wagging their heads : 
and yet this man, who in the morning was railing at Christ, 
is now confessing his sins. " We indeed justly." No miracle 
had been wrought before his eyes. The Son of God had not 
come down from the cross. No angel from heaven had come 
to place a glittering crown upon His head, in place of the 
bloody crown of thorns. What was it, then ? I will tell you 
what I think it was. I think it was the Saviour's prayer, — 
" Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." 

I seem to hear this thief talking with himself in this way : — 

" What a strange kind of man this must be ! He says He 
is King of the Jews ; and the superscription on His cross says 
the same thing. But what sort of a throne is this ! He says 
He is the Son of God. Why does not God send down His 
angels, and destroy all this great crowd of people who are tor- 
turing His Son ? If He has all power now, as He used to have 
when He worked those miracles they talk about, why does 
He not bring out His vengeance, and sweep all these wretches 
into destruction ? I would do it in a minute, if I had the power. 
Oh ! if I could, I would open the earth and swallow up these 
tormentors ! But this man prays to God to "forgive them." 
Strange ! strange ! He must be so different from the rest of 
us. I am sorry I said one word against Him when they first 
hung us up here. What a difference there is between Him and 



41 8 THE PENITENT THIEF. 

me ! Here we are hanging on two crosses, side by side ; but all 
the rest of our lives we have been far enough apart. I have 
been robbing and murdering, and He has been visiting the 
hungry, healing the sick, and raising the dead. Now these 
people are railing at us both. What a strange world is this ! 
I will not rail at Him any more. Indeed, I begin to believe 
He must be the Son of God ; for surely no son of man could 
forgive his enemies this way." 

That is what did it, my friends. This poor man had been 
scourged, and beaten, and nailed to the cross, and hung up there 
for the world to gaze upon ; and he was not sorry for his sins 
one single bit — did not feel the least conviction on account of all 
that misery. But when he heard the Saviour praying for His 
murderers, that broke his heart. 

I remember to have heard a story, somewhere, of a bad boy 
who had run away from home. He had given his father no end 
of trouble. He had refused all the invitations which his father 
had sent him to come home and be forgiven, and help to comfort 
his old heart. He had even gone so far as to scoff at his father 
and mother. But one day a letter came telling him his father 
was dead, and they wanted him to come home and attend the 
funeral. At first he determined he would not go, but then he 
thought it would be a shame not to pay some little respect to 
the memory of so good a man after he was dead ; and so, just as 
a matter of form, he took the train, and went to the old home, sat 
through all the funeral services, saw his father buried, and came 
back with the rest of the friends to the house, with his heart as 
cold and stony as ever. But when the old man's will was brought 
out to be read, the ungrateful son found that his father had 
remembered him along with all the rest of the family in the 
will, and had left him an inheritance with the others, who 
had not gone astray. This broke his heart. It was too much 
for him, that his old father, during all those years in which 
he had been so wicked and rebellious, had never ceased to love 
him. That is just the way our Father in Heaven does with us. 
That is just the way Jesus does with people who refuse to give 
their hearts to Him. He loves them in spite of their sins, and 
it is the love which, more than anything else, brings hard-hearted 
sinners to their knees. 

Now this man confessed his sins. A man may be very sorry 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 419 

for his sins ; but, if he does not confess them, he has no promise 
of being forgiven. Hear him: "We are suffering justly," he 
says. I never knew any man to be converted till he confessed, 
Cain felt bad enough over his sins, but he did not confess. Saul 
was greatly tormented in his mind, but he went to the witch 
of Endor rather than to the Lord. Judas felt so bad over the 
betrayal of his Master, that he went out and hanged himself j 
but he did not confess, — that is, he did not confess to God. 
He came back and confessed to the priests, saying, " I have 
sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." It was of 
no use to confess to them. They could not forgive him. What 
he should have done was to confess to God ; but instead of that, 
he went right away and hanged himself. How different is the 
case with this man \ He confesses his sins to Christ, and Christ 
has mercy on him at once. 

Just here is one of the great difficulties with a great many 
people. They don't like to come up face to face with their sins. 
They don't like to own that they are sinners. They excuse 
themselves in every way. They think they are not very bad 
sinners ; that there are a great many worse than they are ; and 
so they try to cover up the great fact which this penitent thiet 
confesses openly. My friends, you never will be saved, so long 
as you try to cover up your sins. 

We have heard a great deal about the faith of Abraham, and 
the faith of* Moses ; but this man seems to me to have had more 
faith than any of them. He stands at the head of the class. 
God was twenty-five years toning up the faith of Abraham ; 
Moses was forty years getting ready for his work ; but this thief, 
right here in the midst of men who rejected Him — nailed to the 
cross, and racked with pain in every nerve, overwhelmed with 
horror, and his soul in a perfect tempest — still manages to lay 
hold upon Christ, and trust in Him for a swift salvation. His 
heart goes out to the Saviour. How glad he would be to fall 
on his knees at the foot of that cross, and pour out his prayer 
to Him who was hanging on it ! But this he cannot do. His 
hands and feet are nailed fast to the wood ; but they cannot 
nail his eyes, nor his heart. He can, at least, turn his head, 
and look upon the Son of God ; and his breaking heart can go 
out in love to the One who is dying beside him — dying for him, 
and dying for you and me. 



420 THE PENITENT THIEF. 

And what does Jesus say in answer to his prayer? That 
prayer was a confession of Christ. He calls Jesus Lord, and 
begs to be remembered in His kingdom : that must be a king- 
dom in heaven, for surely there was no chance of a kingdom on 
earth, as things looked at that time. 

Christ fulfilled His promise to the thief — "Whoso confesseth 
me before men, him will I confess before my Father and the 
holy angels." He looks kindly upon him, and says, "To-day 
shalt thou be with me in Paradise." And now the darkness 
falls upon the earth ; the sun hides itself ; but, worse than 
all, the Father hides His face from the Son. What else is the 
meaning of that bitter cry, " My God, my God ! why hast Thou 
forsaken me?" Ah! It had been written, "Cursed is every 
one that hangeth on a tree." Jesus is made a curse for us. 
God cannot look upon sin : and now His own Son is bearing, 
in His own body, the sins of all the world ; and so He cannot 
look upon Him. 

I think that is what was heaviest upon the Saviour's heart, 
away there in the Garden, when He prayed, "If it be possible, 
let this cup pass away from me." He could bear the unfaith- 
fulness of His friends, the spite of His enemies, the pain of His 
crucifixion, and the shadow of death ; He could bear all these : 
but when it came to the hiding of His Father's face, that seemed 
almost too much for even the Son of God to bear. But even 
this He endured for our sins ; and now the face of God is turned 
back to us, whose sins had turned it away ; and looking upon 
Jesus, the sinless One, He sees our souls in Him. 

In the midst of all His agony, how sweet it must have 
been to Christ to hear that poor thief confessing Him ! He 
likes to have men confessing Him. Do you not remember His 
asking Peter, " Whom do men say that I am?" and when Peter 
answered, " Some people say you are Moses, some people say 
you are Elias, and some people say you are one of the old 
prophets," He asks again, "But, Peter, who do you say I 
am ? " and when Peter says, " Thou art the Son of God," Jesus 
blesses him for that confession. And now this thief confessed 
Him — confesses Him in the darkness. Perhaps it is so dark 
he cannot see Him any longer ; but he feels that He is there 
beside him. This poor thief did as much for Christ in that one 
act as if he had lived and worked for Him fifty years. That is 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 421 

what Christ wants of us — to confess Him ; in the dark as well as 
in the light, when it is hard as well as when it is easy ; for He 
was not ashamed of us, and carried our sins even unto death. 

Just look a minute at the prayer of this penitent thief. He 
calls Jesus Lord. That sounds like a young convert. " Lord, 
remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Not a 
very long prayer, you see, but a prevailing prayer. Some people 
think they must have a form of prayer, — a prayer-book, perhaps 
— if they are going to address the Throne of Grace properly. 
But what would that poor fellow do with a prayer-book up there, 
hanging on the cross, his hands nailed fast to the wood ? Sup- 
pose it were necessary that some minister, or priest, should 
pray for him, what is he going to do ? There is nobody there 
to pray for him, and he is going to die in a few hours. He is 
out of reach of help from men ; but God has laid help upon 
One who is mighty, and that One is close at hand. 

Then look at the answer to his prayer. He got more than he 
asked. He only asked to be remembered when Christ came 
into His kingdom. But Christ says to him, " I will take you 
right up with me into my kingdom to-day." The Saviour 
wants us all to remember Him in His old kingdom, — to re- 
member Him in the breaking of bread and in the drinking of 
wine, — and then He will remember us in the new kingdom. 

Now think of this, my friends. The last the world ever saw 
of Christ, He was on the cross. The last business of His life 
was the saving of a poor penitent thief. That was a part of 
His triumph. That was one of the glories attending His death. 
No doubt Satan said to himself, " I will have the soul of that 
thief, pretty soon, down here in the caverns of the lost. He 
belongs to me. He has belonged to me all those years." But 
Christ snapped the fetters of his soul, and set him at liberty : 
Satan lost his prey. " The Lion of the tribe of Judah " con- 
quered the lion of hell. 

You know that in the British Colonies, before the time of 
Wilberforce, there used to be a great many slaves ; but that 
good man began to agitate the question of setting them 
free ; and all the slaves in the Colonies, when they heard of it, 
were very anxious to know how he was getting along. They 
knew the Bill was before Parliament ; and with them it was a 
question next to that of life itself. But in those days there were 



422 THE PENITENT THIEF. 

no telegraphs and no steamships. The mails went by the slow 
sailing-vessels. They would be from six to eight months in 
making a voyage to some of the more distant of the Colonies. 
The slaves used to watch for the white sails of British ships, 
hoping to hear good news, but fearing they might hear bad 
ones. There was a ship which had sailed immediately after 
the Emancipation Act had been passed and signed by the 
king ; and when she came within hailing distance of the boats 
which had put off from the shore at the port where she was 
bound, the captain could not wait to deliver the message 
officially, and have it duly promulgated by the Government ; 
but, seeing the poor anxious men standing up in their boats, 
eager for the news, he placed his trumpet to his mouth, and 
shouted with all his might, " Free ! free ! " 

Just so the angel shouted when this poor bondman of Satan's, 
almost in the jaws of the pit, was taken in hand by the Saviour 
Himself ; delivered from the bondage of darkness, into the 
liberty of His dear Son; free — free from sin — free from the curse 
of the law — free now, in a little while, from the bonds of the flesh 
as well. 

What a contrast ! In the morning he is led out a condemned 
criminal ; in the evening he is saved from his sins. In the morn- 
ing he is cursing ; in the evening he is singing hallelujahs with a 
choir of angels. In the morning he is condemned by men as 
not fit to live on earth ; in the evening he is reckoned good 
enough for heaven. Christ was not ashamed to walk arm-in- 
arm with him down the golden pavements of the eternal city. 
He had heard the Saviour's cry, " It is finished." He had seen 
the spear thrust into His side. Jesus had died before his very 
eyes, and hastened before him to get a place ready for this first 
soul brought from the world after He had died. 

You have heard of the child who did not like to die and go 
to heaven, because he did not know anybody there. But the 
thief had one acquaintance : even the Master of the place Him- 
self. He calls to Gabriel, and says, " Prepare a chariot ; make 
haste : there is a friend of mine hanging upon that cross. They 
are breaking his legs. He soon will be ready to come. Make 
haste and bring him to me." And the angel in the chariot 
sweeps down the sky, takes up the soul of the poor penitent 
thief, and hastens back again to glory ; while the gates of the 



THE PENITENT THIEF. 4 2j, 

city swing wide open, and the angels shout their welcome to> 
this poor sinner " washed in the blood of the Lamb." 

And that, my friends, is just what Christ wants to do for every- 
sinner here. He wants to save you. That is the business on 
which He came down from heaven. That is why He died : and 
if He gives such great and swift salvation to this poor thief om 
the cross, surely He will give you the same deliverance,, if,, like 
the penitent thief, you will repent, and confess, and trust in the: 
Saviour. 

Somebody says that this man "was saved at the eleventh 
hour." I don't know about that. Perhaps it was the first hour. 
It might have been the first hour with him, I think. Perhaps, 
he never knew Christ until he was led out to die beside Him. 
This may have been the very first time he had ever learned the 
way of faith in the Son of God. 

But how many of you gave your hearts to Christ the very first 
time He asked them of you? Are you not further along in the- 
day than even that poor thief? 

A little while ago, in one of the mining districts of England, 
a young man attended one of our meetings, and refused to go 
from the place till he had found peace in the Saviour. The 
next day he went down into the pit, and the coal fell in upon 
him ; and when they took him out he was broken and mangled, 
and had only two or three minutes of life left in him. His 
friends gathered about him, saw his lips moving, and, bending 
down their ears to catch his words, this was what they heard 
him say: " It was a good thing I settled it last night." 

Settle it this morning, my friends, once for all. Begin now to 
confess your sins, and to pray the Lord to "remember you when 
He cometh into His kingdom." 



424 



MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON "THE BLOOD." 
Exodus xii. 1-18. 

MY friends, it was the blood that did it. Just so it is now. 
God says, " When I see the blood I will pass over you. 
The blood shall be a token unto you." And I tell you, my friends, 
the greatest question that can be before you to-night is this : 
Have you got the token ? Have you got the blood ? Are you 
sheltered behind the precious blood of the Lamb ? That is the 
question. If you are thus sheltered, and if you have the token, 
then you are perfectly secure and safe. 

There is a legend told in reference to that night on which 
the Lord slew the firstborn of the Egyptians ; and it runs thus : 
— There was a little child, the firstborn in the house of an 
Israelite ; and you know God said that, in every house where 
the blood was not upon the doorpost, the firstborn should be 
smitten by death. This little girl was sick, but she was afraid 
that the blood was not upon the doorpost; so she asked her 
father if he was sure he had put the blood upon the doorpost ; 
and the father said, " Yes, he was quite sure : he had ordered 
it to be done." But the little girl said the second time, " Father, 
are you quite sure that the blood is there ? " 

"Yes, my child," answered the father ; " be quiet, and sleep." 
But the child could not sleep. She was very sick and very 
restless ; and as night came on, and it grew darker and darker, 
and nearer and nearer to the time when the angel should pass 
over Goshen, she got still more nervous and restless and un- 
easy ; and at last she said, " Father, take me in your arms and 
let me see the blood upon the doorpost" ; and the father, to 
satisfy the child, took her to the door to show her the blood ; 
and lo and behold ! it was not there : the man to whom he 
had given instructions had forgotten to do it. And then the 



MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON " THE BLOOD." 425 



father, in the sight of the child, had the blood put upon the 
doorpost, and the child lay down and went to sleep. 

That, of course, is only a legend ; but, my friends, it might 
have been true. Now, when we see that we have the blood, it 
satisfies us. I don't believe the sinner will ever be saved until 
he has the blood. May God give you it to-night ! — because it is 
that which atones for our sins, and that which is the token of 
our redemption. 

People say : " If I were only as good as that minister, who 
has been preaching for fifty years, I should feel so safe. If I 
could give as much money to poor people as So and So gives, I 
should feel so safe for heaven ; and that it was all right with 
me." Let me say to you, my friends, if you are behind the 
blood of Jesus Christ, you are just as safe as any man or 
woman in the world. It is the blood. It is not our righteous- 
ness. It is not our good deeds. It is not our benevolent 
works. Works may come in, and a reward be had for them ; 
but they don't help us to salvation. They don't save us from 
the curseof death. 

" It is to him that worketh not, but believeth." And so we 
must be sheltered behind the blood, and know that we are there, 
before we can be safe. Then, the moment we are safe, it will 
be time enough to talk about work. 

My friends, the first thing is to know you are sheltered behind 
the blood. You go to a railway station, and you buy a ticket, 
and get into a carriage ; and the guard comes round and cries, 
" Tickets," and you put your hand in your pocket and pull out 
the ticket, and present that to the man ; but the guard does not 
look to see if you are a white man or a black, learned or un- 
learned, great or small. He does not know, perhaps, who you 
are, or what you are ; but he looks for the token. Oh ! my 
friends, God says, " If you have got the token, I will pass over 
you." Have you got the token ? Young lady, have you got the 
token? Young man, have you got the token? That is the 
question — the solemn question. 

I can imagine some of these lords and dignitaries of Egypt 
riding through Goshen the day before the passover. They could 
hear the bleating of the lambs all through the province, for every 
man had either his lamb ready to kill, or was killing it ; and 
they were throwing the blood upon the doorposts; I imagine 

19 



426 MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON "THE BLOOD." 



I can hear those Egyptians saying, " Men ! what are you doing ? 
Why are you putting blood upon your houses ? Why are you 
disfiguring your doorposts ? We would not have blood upon 
our houses." " Ah ! " say the Hebrews, " it is going to shelter 
us to-night. It will be worth to us, at midnight, more than 
all Egypt." And I can further imagine these great men going 
away and laughing together, and thinking that these Hebrews 
had gone clean mad. But, ah ! that night, at midnight, they 
changed their minds. There was a wail that went up from 
every house. From the palace of the king down to the lowest 
hovel, death had come and taken his victim. He entered the 
palace of the rich and the hovel of the poor, and laid his icy 
hand upon the firstborn ; — the only thing that could keep 
death out, was death. And so it is with us. The death of 
Christ is our life. People say we ought to preach up Christ's 
life and moral character. I don't know how many letters I 
have received, urging me to preach the life of Christ and not 
His death. But Christ died for our sins. He didn't say we 
were to preach His life to save men. Christ's death is what 
gives us liberty. God didn't say, Tie up a living lamb, and "when 
I see that I will pass over you." If that had been done, death 
would have passed over the living lamb and taken his firstborn. 
It was death that kept death off; and the only way to meet 
death, is by death. Death has come, and I must either have 
some one to die for me, or die myself. That is the lesson that 
God is trying to bring out — the great doctrine of substitution. 
These little lambs were typical of the coming of the Lamb of 
God. They foreshadowed the scene at Calvary ; and they went 
on being offered until Jesus Christ Himself should come. 

And then, there are one or two other verses we ought to 
notice. " Thus shall ye eat it ; with your loins girded, your 
shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand ; and ye shall 
eat it in haste ; it is the Lord's Passover." Now, there are 
many people who are just satisfied with getting to Calvary ; 
but forget to feed upon the Lamb, and are thus deprived of 
much spiritual power. They are satisfied with the work done 
at Calvary, and they forget the work of the Holy Ghost in them. 
They forget to eat of the Lamb. Now Christ is the Bread of 
heaven, and we are to feed upon Him, and get spiritual power. 
Then it is that we really become strong. 



MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON " THE BLOOD" 427 

The Israelites had a long journey before them ; and they were 
to feed upon the lamb. And then it says in the fourth verse : 
" And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and 
his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the 
number of the souls : every man according to his eating, shall 
make your count for the lamb." Christ is enough for any 
family — He is enough for every family here to-night. He is 
enough for every soul, if you will only take Him and feed upon 
Him. Then in that second verse it says : " This month shall 
be unto you the beginning of months : it shall be the first 
month of the year to you." Everything dates from Calvary ; 
and not from the cradle. Some people seem to think they 
start from the cradle to heaven ; but we start from the cross ; 
everything begins with the blood. "This shall be the begin- 
ning of months." Men have wrought for these four thousand 
years, making bricks without straw, for Egypt's king. Those 
four thousand years have rolled into the past ; and now, when 
a man comes to Christ, all that is done in the past is wiped 
away : he has been the devil's own, but now he is the child of 
God. 

If you give yourselves to God to-night, everything will date 
afresh from now, and you will become a citizen of a better world. 

I must direct your attention to Exodus xxix. 16 ; and there 
you will read of the blood again: "And thou shalt slay the 
lamb, and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it round 
about the altar." Now the high priest had to take the blood 
and sprinkle it round about the altar. There was no way for a 
man to come to the altar but by the way of the blood ; and 
there never has been any other way, since Adam fell, but this 
way. Any man who attempts to come to God now, without 
coming through Jesus Christ, as his Mediator, is just deceiving 
himself. He will have no fellowship with God unless he comes 
by the way of the blood. That was kept up until Christ came ; 
then they could come and make their wants known through 
Jesus Christ, but not till then. Turn to Exodus xxx. ; and there 
you will find : " And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the 
horns of it once in a year, with the blood of the sin-offering of 
atonements : once in the year shall he make atonement upon it 
throughout your generations : it is most holy unto the Lord." 
Make atonement ! At-one-ment. If you want to become 



428 MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON « THE BLOOD. 



at one with God, you must become so through the blood. It 
is the only tie by which God and we can be linked together. 
When God made Adam, He surrounded him with everything 
that was good ; and with a golden cord bound him unto Him- 
self. And Christ came back to re-link man to God, and 
heaven ; and it is just done by that one word — the blood. 
Atonement, by Christ means the sinner and God made one. 

There may be some one who says, " Why does God demand 
blood? I don't see why He should demand blood." There 
may be some of you saying, " It seems very strange." So it 
does ; and so it appeared to me. I could not understand why it 
was that God demanded blood ; but the whole thing is plain 
enough now. Will you turn to Leviticus xvii. 1 1 : " For the life 
of the flesh is in the blood ; and I have given it to you upon the 
altar to make an atonement for your souls : for it is the blood 
that maketh an atonement for the soul." Now, my dear friends, 
do you see why He demands the blood ? God said to Adam, 
" In the day that thou sinnest thou shalt die "; and the moment 
Adam sinned he died. He was not taken out of this clay 
temple, but he died spiritually. That is where many people 
make the mistake. They seem to think the body is the most 
important part of them. My friends, it is only the house that 
we live in. The life that God had given to Adam, that he 
might commune with His Creator, was forfeited the moment he 
fell. The moment he believed and received that devil's lie into 
his mind, and broke the law of God, he fell out of communion 
with God ; and the moment that God came down after him, 
where did He find him ? Why, He found him out of the fellow- 
ship — out of communion. Adam had gone and hid away from 
his loving Father : and ever since, God has been trying to get 
Adam's sons into fellowship and communion with Him ; but 
the only way that He can be just, and justify the sinner, is, 
that the sinner should believe that " His Son died for our 
sins, according to the Scriptures." God's word must be kept. 
" Heaven and earth may pass away, but God's word shall never 
pass away." This, then, tells us why God demands the blood. 
"The blood is the life of all flesh." Now, it is really life that 
God demands. This life has been forfeited. You have sold 
yourselves for nought, but you shall be redeemed " without 
money." Life, then, is gone. Your life, my friends — the old- 



MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON " THE BLOOD? 429 

Adam life — is not worth crossing the street after. God 
stamped it with death, and said it should never come into His 
presence. Now, if I don't get life, it is said, I must perish. 
That is what the apostles preached, — " Christ died for our 
justification. Christ rose for our sins." Now how can God be 
just, and justify the sinner ? I will tell you : because God Him- 
self came down in the form of sinful flesh, and took upon Him 
our nature, and died that we might live. There is the doctrine 
of substitution. Why, people say, " I don't believe in the 
doctrine of substitution." Well then, if you don't believe in 
that, you don't believe in the Bible. I tell you, take the 
doctrine of substitution out of that Bible, and I would not carry 
it home with me. If it does not teach that, it teaches nothing. 

From the fall of man, all the language of that book has 
rung out this one thing : " The seed of the woman shall bruise 
the serpent's head." It has run along down through the ages 
ever since Adam fell. 

Isaiah took up the strain, and sang, " He was wounded for 
our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities ; and the 
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we 
are healed." Take the doctrine of the substitution out of this 
Bible, and what are you going to do with that verse? You 
break away from your moorings. You break away from all our 
hope. 

Take the history of those first two worshippers we have on 
record — Cain and Abel. Now Abel believed in the doctrine of 
the substitution, but Cain did not. I seem to hear Cain saying 
to himself, " I am not fond of shedding blood. I don't see 
why Abel must be always killing something for an offering to 
God. It seems to me much better to bring some of the fruits 
of the earth." But, my friends, the Bible says that " God had 
respect unto Abel and his offering ; but unto Cain and his 
offering He had not respect." There are a great many Cainites 
in the world in these days. Take care, my friends, not to 
disobey God, and neglect the blood of His Son, lest He, 
as in the case of Cain, reject both your offering and your- 
selves. You insult the Almighty by offering the work of this 
frail body to atone for sin. Can you atone for sin yourselves ? 
People say : " I believe God is so merciful, that that settles the 
question for me." Suppose a man robbed me of a thousand 



430 MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON " THE BLOOD? 

pounds, and said : " I have nothing against Mr. Moody ; I have 
very warm feelings towards him." That is not the question. 
The question is : " Have I anything against him ? " So men 
say they have done nothing against God. That is not the 
question. The question is, my friends, Has God anything 
against you ? And you never will have peace until that is 
removed, and God is reconciled : and the moment you accept 
of His Son, then there is reconciliation — and there is no recon- 
ciliation until that is done. Now God does not demand pay- 
ment of you. If Christ died for my sins, I have not got to die. 

" The wages of sin is death." What is it ? Death ! Have 
you sinned? Yes. Have we all sinned? Yes. Then we 
must receive the wages. We must either receive them, or some 
one else must receive them for us. Then Christ comes right 
in, and says : " I will take your place." Christ died for the 
ungodly. Well, I am ungodly, and I will take the benefit of 
that death. 

There is a woman in our country who was hoping to be saved, 
because she thought that she was a respectable sinner. Some 
sinners don't think they are like other sinners. When people 
talk to me in this strain, I know they are great sinners. She 
heard a sermon, which showed her clearly that Christ died for 
the ungodly ; and she said, " I must be ungodly : He died for 
the ungodly " : she awoke to the fact that she was unlike God, 
and the. light of eternity flashed into her soul. 

My friends, take your place amongst the ungodly. I am 
tired of people making out that they are not bad sinners, — 
whereas they are bad from the crown of the head to the sole of 
the foot. They are bad, and God says it : and let God be true 
and every man a liar. The glorious truth of the Gospel is that 
" Christ died for our sins." Ask me my hope of eternal life, and 
I reply, "Christ died for my sins." Take that away, and I don't 
know what will become of me. No one else can save me. Those 
ministers cannot do it : they have as many sins of their own 
as they can attend to ; and if you cannot get rid of your sins 
yourself, or any one else for you, you are shut up to this : " Christ 
must save us, or we must perish." If God turned Adam out of 
Eden for that one sin, do you think He is going to allow us into 
heaven with ten thousand sins ? I must give my life to atone 
for my sins, unless I can find some one else who will take my 



Mk. MOODY'S SERMON ON " THE BLOOD." 43* 



place. Now, thank God, I have found Jesus ; and every man 
and woman out of Christ here to-night can find the same Sub- 
stitute. 

There is a story told of the great Napoleon, that, when he sent 
out a draft for recruits, a man was drafted who didn't want to 
go into the army ; but he had a friend who thought a good deal 
of him, and this friend offered to go in his place. He was found 
to be a good healthy man, and he was taken. A battle was 
fought, and the man was killed and buried on the field. Some 
time afterwards another draft was made, and by a mistake this 
man, whose substitute the other had been, was drafted the 
second time. When they went to take him, he said, — 

" You cannot take me." 

"Why not?" 

" I am dead." 

" You are not." 

" Yes, I am. I died at such a battle, and you will find me 
buried on such a battle-field." 

The man declared that he was dead, and they declared that 
he was alive ; 

" See if I was not drafted at such and such a time." They 
looked, and found that he had been drafted ; and found another 
name against his : and then they said that he had got a substitute. 

" I know that," said he ; " and he died for me, and you can- 
not take me." 

They said they would, take him and they did. Upon this he 
appealed to the emperor, — who decided they could not take 
him, for another man had died in his place. 

There were hundreds of such cases during our war, where 
men bought substitutes ; and others served through love — the 
father for the son, and the son for the father, and brothers 
for brothers. One wealthy man hired another to go to the war 
for him, and he was killed. The wealthy man went down South, 
and built a monument over his substitute's grave ; and on it he 
put this inscription : "He died for me." Ah ! my friends, 
go to the tomb of Jesus, and say over it, " He died for me." 
Yea, you can go further, and say, " He rose for me, and He is 
at the right hand of God for me ; and I have life in Him, and 
the hope of eternal glory. Death cannot touch my spiritual 
nature ; I am safe for time and eternity." 



432 MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON « THE BLOOD? 

My friends, what will you do with the precious blood to-night? 
Will you trample it under your feet, and send back an insulting 
message to God, that you don't care for His Son, or for the 
blood that flowed from Calvary? or will you find refuge and 
shelter behind the blood to-night ? Do you say there is no 
beauty in it ? Young lady, will you get up and leave this place, 
laughing and making light of the Son of God, and the offer of 
mercy? Young man, will you turn with contempt from the 
Saviour, and refuse a share in the great salvation He offers to 
you — bought at the price of His blood ? 

Some men seem to think it is noble to fight against such a 
Saviour ; others have not the moral courage to lift up their 
voices for Him. It seems to me cowardice not to confess 
Christ, after what He has done for us. A good many years ago, 
when the Californian gold-fever broke out, there was a great rush 
to the place. There was a young man who left a wife and little 
boy, and went to California. He told his wife that, as soon as 
he succeeded in business, he would send for her and his child. 
They watched and watched for the letter to come, bringing the 
money ; but no news came. He was not very successful, and it 
was a long time before the money came to take them to the 
Pacific coast. But at last the letter did come ; and that wife 
and little boy were full of delight. They thought they were 
going to see him whom they loved. They went to New York, 
and took their passage in one of these beautiful Pacific steamers. 
They sailed out of the harbour : but they had not been out 
to sea long, when, one beautiful day, when everything seemed 
calm and still, all at once there was a cry of " Fire ! fire ! " 

The pumps were set to work ; but in spite of everything, 
the flames increased. There was a magazine of powder on 
board ; and the captain knew the moment the fire touched 
it, all would perish. The lifeboats were lowered, and the 
strongest of the passengers and crew sprang into them, and 
left the rest to die. Among the number left, were that poor 
mother and her boy. The last lifeboat was pushing away : it 
was her last hope. She bent over that ship, and begged them 
to take her boy and herself : but no, — the crew said " they 
didn't dare take any more." She pleaded with them until at 
last one of the men said, " Let us take them ;" but the other men 
cried out against it. At last they promised to take one of them, 



MR. MOODY'S SERMON ON " THE BLOOD" 433 

and shouted this to her. What do you think she did ? Did 
the mother leap into the boat and leave the boy to perish ? 
But you, mothers, know that she would not do that. No 
true mother would do that. This mother seized her darling 
boy ; she pressed him to her heart, handed him over the side ; 
and, as she dropped him into the boat, she said, " My son, if 
you live to see your father, tell him that I died in your place : " 
The boat pushed off, and in a little while that vessel was blown 
up, and that mother perished. Young men, what would you 
say of that son, who is now grown up, if he should speak dis- 
respectfully of such a mother as that ? You would say he would 
not be fit to live. 

Ah ! Christ has done more than that for you. He left a life 
of glory to endure a life of shame ; while we were without 
strength, He died for us. He did not die for His friends alone ; 
He died also for His enemies. I want you all to come to Him 
to-night. Won't you believe on Him and be saved ? 

10* 



434 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 

" And they all with one consent began to make excuse. ''—Luke xiv. 18. 

SOME people are always making excuses for not doing their 
duty, and especially for not coming to Christ. If I asked 
you to come to Christ, you would be ready to give some reason 
for not accepting the invitation. I never saw an unsaved man 
in my life but had some excuse — never ! and if you don't have 
one ready, Satan will be right by you to help you to make one. 
He is good at that sort of thing. That has been his occupation 
the last six thousand years — helping men to make excuses. 

Just bear in mind, these men were invited to a feast, and not to a 
funeral. They were not invited to go to prison. They were not 
invited to a hospital, or to a madhouse ; but they were invited to a 
feast. Now, when a man prepares a feast, there is a great rush 
to see who will get the best seats ; but when God prepares His 
feast, the chairs would all be empty, if His disciples did not go 
out to compel people to come in. No sooner did the King send 
out His invitations than the excuses began to rain in. "And 
they all wth one consent began to make excuse." 

All at it, and always at it. Did you ever stop to think, my 
friends, what would take place if God should take every man at 
his own word who wants to be excused ? If He were to say, "I 
will excuse you," and with the next breath take them all out of the 
world ? If every one in this audience should be taken at his 
word, who makes excuses in this respect, and if God should 
say, " Cut him down, let him cumber the ground no longer, 
hew him down," there would be a very terrible state of things 
in London. If every man in London, and every woman, 
who wants to be excused, and is saying so, — if God should 
take them at their word, and say, " I will excuse you," oh ! my 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 435 

friends, there would be a great many shops not opened to- 
morrow. The public-houses, for instance, would be closed ; for 
I never saw a publican in my life but what wanted to be excused. 
He knows he cannot go on with his hellish traffic, if he accepts 
this invitation. He would have to stop that at once. Many 
of your cabmen do not want to come to the feast, because 
they would have to stop their business on the Sabbath. There 
would be a great many of your princely merchants that would 
be gone. They do not want to accept the invitation, because 
they think, if they do, they cannot make money so fast. They 
are carrying on some business which would then have to be 
stopped, because they accepted this invitation. There would 
be a very sad state of things taking place. Those that were left 
would have to be busy burying the dead. It would be a very 
solemn time, if God should take men at their word, and just 
excuse them. You let some terrible disease lay hold of a man, 
and half his excuses are gone at once. 

Every kind of excuse is given ; but that man does not live 
who can give a good excuse. 

Let any man get an invitation from Queen Victoria to go 
down to Windsor Castle, to some banquet ; and there is not 
a man but would consider it a great honour to receive such 
an invitation. But only think of the invitation that I bring to- 
night ! It comes from the King of kings. The marriage supper 
of the Lamb is going to take place, and God wants every man in 
this assembly to be present. I cannot speak for the rest of you ; 
but if I know my own heart, I would be rather torn limb 
from limb — I would rather have my heart torn out of me — than 
be absent from that marriage supper. I have missed a good 
many appointments in my time, but, by the grace of God, I 
mean to make sure of keeping that one. 

These men all began to say, " I pray thee have me excused." 
Let us take up that first man's excuse. What was it ? He had 
bought some ground, and he must needs go and see it. Why 
did he not, if he were a good business man, go and look at the 
ground before he bought it? It was not going to make the 
ground any better for him to go and look at it. He had not made 
a partial bargain and might withdraw. He was not afraid that 
some one might step in ahead of him and get the ground from 
him, and so he would lose it : it was not anything of this kind ; 



436 POPULAR EXCUSES. 

but he had bought the ground, and must needs go and see it ! 
It is a strange time to go and see ground, just at supper time ! 
I think the ground would have looked all the better after he 
had been to the feast. But the fact is, my friends, he did not 
believe it was a feast ; and that is the trouble to-day. Men 
do not believe the Gospel ?s a feast. 

The second man is approached by the messenger, who says, 
" My lord has made a great feast, and he wants to have you 
come to it." "Take back to your lord the message, that I 
cannot be there. I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I have 
got to go and prove them." Why did not he prove his oxen 
before he bought them ? That is the time to prove oxen ; but 
now he has bought them, let them stand in the stall. The trade 
is already closed ; the bargain is already made ; the oxen are 
bought. They are his, and now he can go and prove them at 
any time. A queer time to prove oxen, at supper time ! He 
had better have proved them in the morning, and so have been 
ready to go to the feast in the evening. 

The third man had married a wife, and therefore he could not 
come. Why not take his wife along with him ? A young bride 
likes to go to a feast — no one better. He might have taken 
her: and if she was not willing, then let her stay at home. 
You smile, you laugh at this, but you can see plainly what these 
excuses were. They were simply falsehoods, just manufactured 
to ease their consciences. That boy down in the audience sees 
how absurd these excuses were ; for the fact was, they did not 
want to go to the feast ; and it would have been a good deal 
more honest for them to have said ; " I don't want to go to your 
lord's feast, and I will not go." 

Now, I would just like to take up some of the popular excuses 
of the present day. I do not doubt but there are hundreds 
of you who say to-night, "If I could accept that invitation 
Mr. Moody, I would like to be a Christian ; but, sir, I have 
tried, and I find it is a very hard thing." Well, now let 
us look at that excuse. Do you mean to say that God is a hard 
Master ? Do you say it is a hard thing to serve God ? and do 
you say that Satan is an easy master, and that it is easier to 
serve him than God ? Is it honest, — is it true ? If it is, then I 
must confess that I have not read my Bible right ; because I 
read it this way :— " The way of the transgressor is hard." If 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 4# 

you doubt it, young men, look at the convicts in that prison ; right 
in the bloom of manhood; right in the prime of life. He has 
been there for ten years, and must remain there for ten years 
more, — twenty years taken out of his life, and the thought that 
when he comes out of that miserable cell, he comes out a 
branded convict ! Do you think that man will tell you " the 
way of the transgressor has been easy " ? Go and ask the poor 
drunkard, — the man who is bound hand and foot, and is a slave 
to the infernal cup, and is hastening on to a drunkard's grave and 
to a drunkard's hell, — ask him if he has found the way of the 
transgressor easy, and the devil an easy master. Go ask the 
libertine — go ask that gambler — go ask the most abandoned 
man you have got in London, — ask them all, if they have found 
the devil an easy master. Suppose we were to take the most 
faithful follower of the devil, and put him into the witness-stand, 
and let him testify ; do you think the most faithful follower 
of the devil would tell you that he is an easy master ? Why, 
there is not a young man here but knows in his heart the devil 
is a hard master. The best way to settle this question is to find 
out by the testimony of those that have served both masters. I 
do not think any man has a right to judge until he has served 
both masters. If I heard a man condemn a master, I should 
be very apt to ask if he had served him ; and if he had not, he 
could not very wefl testify. I am speaking to many to-night 
who have served both masters. Many of you have served 
Christ ; and many of you, before you were brought into the fold 
of Christ, served the devil. I would like to ask the young men 
here to-night that are Christ's, — that have served Christ, — I 
would like to ask you, who have been brought into the kingdom 
of God and found Christ,— is Jesus a hard Master ? [Loud cries 
of No.] I thought you would say no. I knew you would. I 
never heard a man say, " I have served Christ for five years, or 
more, and found Him a very hard Master." You never will say 
that. One of the greatest lies that has come out of the pit of 
hell is, that Christ is a hard Master. It is a lie, and has been 
so from the foundation of the world. Oh, young man, I beg 
of you, do not believe the devil when he says that God is a 
hard Master. It is false, my friends ; and to-night let me 
brand that excuse as one of the devil's own lies, that he has 
been retailing up and down the earth for six thousand years. 



43& POPULAR EXCUSES. 

Look how poor Adam suffered, because he believed the devil's 
lies ! Look at poor Judas ! Did he find the devil an easy- 
master ? See him throwing down the thirty pieces of silver ! 
Why, he got so tired of the devil's service that he hanged 
himself twenty-four hours after he entered it. 

Then there is another very popular excuse. I can imagine a 
good many would say ; " Well, Mr. Moody, the fact is, I want to 
be saved." Of course you do ! You would not be coming here 
at this time — at some inconvenience, many of you— if you did 
not want to be saved. But you say, " The fact is, Mr. Moody, 
I don't know that I am elected. If I thought I was elected I 
would come. I know that I cannot come unless I am elected ; 
and I really want to come very much, but I don't know that I 
am one of the elect." Now, I have heard that till I have 
got sick and tired of it. I want to say to every unconverted 
man in this hall to-night that you have no more to do with 
the doctrine of election than you have with the government 
of China. I am not saying this in haste ; I weigh well my 
words. I say that no unconverted man has anything to do with 
the doctrine of election. You have to do with the word whoso- 
ever. Now, the invitation is, " Whosoever will, let him come 
to this feast." To-night, my friends, let me say that you are 
invited, every one of you ; and if you don't come, it will be 
because you won't, not because God does not want you, or 
has not given you the power to come. With the invitation 
there comes the power. Christ said to the withered man, 
" Stretch out thy hand." The man might have said that he 
had not the power ; but with the invitation there came the 
power. And so it is here. Suppose I walked up the street 
to-night, and I stepped up to the door of this Camberwell 
Hall to go in, and a man stopped me, and I said to him, " Why 
not let me in ? " " Where's your ticket ? " "1 have got none." 
"But no one is admitted without a ticket." " Then I cannot 
go in, I suppose ? " " No ; it is for a certain class — those that 
have got tickets." I go along farther — up to the Exeter Hall ; 
and there is an anniversary meeting of some society. I step 
in, and a policeman pushes me back. I say, " I want to go 
in " ; and he says, " You cannot go in here unless you have got a 
ticket. None but members can be admitted to-night." I do 
not happen to be a member of the society, and I cannot go in. 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 439 

I go along a little farther, and come to another meeting ; and 
there, perhaps, they are Quakers. The policeman stops me, and 
says, " Nobody admitted but Quakers." I am not a Quaker, and 
cannot go in. Farther on I find a soldiers' meeting. I 
cannot go in because I am not a soldier, and none but soldiers 
are admitted. But I go farther on, for I find written up in 
great big letters, " Whosoever will, let him come in." In I 
go : that means me. Now God has headed His invitation 
with whosoever, in great burning letters ; and if you will go 
in, God will receive you to-night. He wants you to come this 
hour — this very minute. " Whosoever will, let him take of 
the water of life freely." I have an idea that the Lord Jesus 
Christ saw how men were going to stumble over that doctrine 
of election ; for, after He had been back in heaven for thirty 
or forty years, and John was in the Spirit on the Lord's 
Day, in the Isle of Patmos, Jesus came to him and said, "John, 
write this," and he wrote. Again He said; "John, before you close 
the book, put in this — The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And 
let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 
That for ever has settled in my mind, the doctrine of election. 

Another excuse is: "I can't understand the Bible. Men 
are giving that as the reason why they do not accept the 
invitation to be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now, I 
want to say I never met a sceptic or infidel who had read the 
Bible through. I heard a man say the other day to another 
man, " Have you read such a book ? " " Yes." ' ' What is your 
opinion of it ? " " Well, I only read it through once, and I 
would not like to give my opinion without reading it more care- 
fully." But men can give their opinion about God's Book with- 
out reading it. They read a chapter here and there, and say, 
" Oh, the Book is so dark and mysterious ! " and because they 
cannot understand it by reading a few chapters, they condemn 
the whole of it. The Word of God tells us plainly that the 
natural man cannot understand spiritual things. It is a spiritual 
book, and speaks of spiritual things ; and a man must be born 
of the Spirit before he can understand the Bible. What seems 
very dark and mysterious to you now will all be light and clear 
when ye are born of the Spirit. 

You say, " If that is so, how am I to understand how to be 



44° POPULAR EXCUSES. 

saved ? " I will tell you. When God puts salvation before a 
sinner, He puts it so plain that a man who runs can read, and a 
wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein. There are 
a great many things in the Book which are dark and mysterious ; 
but when it comes to the plan of salvation, God has put it so 
plain that that little girl ten years old can understand it, if she 
will. You understand what it is to come. " Come unto me, 
all ye that labour." You know what it is to take a gift. "He 
came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as 
many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the 
sons of God." " The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God 
is eternal life." You know what it is to believe in a man. Well, 
" believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
You know what it is to put trust and confidence in a man. Now, 
put your trust and confidence in the living God, and you are 
saved. You are saved by casting yourself unreservedly upon 
the Lord Jesus Christ. When God puts salvation before a man, 
He puts it so plain and simple that if he is willing to come as a 
little child, he can come. 

Suppose I should send my little boy, five years old, to 
school to-morrow morning, and when he came home I should 
say, " Can you read, write, spell ? Do you understand all 
about arithmetic, geometry, algebra ? " The little fellow would 
look at me, and say, " Why, Papa, why do you talk that way ? 
I have been trying all day to learn the ABC." Supposing I 
replied ; " If you have not finished your education you need not 
go to the school any more," — what would you say? You 
would say ; " Moody has gone mad." Well, there is about as 
much sense in that as in the way that infidels talk about the 
Bible. They take it up, read a chapter, and say ; " Oh, it is so 
dark and mysterious, we cannot understand it." This blessed 
Book is given to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, 
to guide the way to those eternal mansions. It never was given 
to keep men out of the kingdom of God. That is the devil's 
work — trying to make you believe the Word of God is not true. 
I tell you the only way we can overcome the enemy of our souls 
is by the written Word of God ; and the devil knows that, and 
so he comes up, and says ; " It is full of lies ; it is dark and 
mysterious ; it contradicts itself : don't you believe it." He 
knows the moment a man goes to the Word of God and believes 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 441 



it, he finds liberty to his soul, and gets beyond Satan's reach ; 
he gets a weapon in his hand with which to conquer the devil ; 
he overcomes the enemy of his salvation. The devil does not 
want you to find that out, and whispers this lie ; and you believe 
it rather than the Word of God. Young man, your mother is 
right : the Bible is true, and you had better accept it. 

Keep this in mind : you will never stand up before the bar of 
God, and say, the Bible kept you out of the kingdom. It may 
sound very well here, now ; you may be satisfied to give that for 
an excuse down here, to-night ; but you will not be satisfied to 
give it in the Courts of Heaven; — you will not stand up in the great 
Judgment Day, and say the Bible kept you out of the kingdom. 

Then there is another class. Some people say ; "I haven't 
any doubt about the Word of God ; but the fact is, there are 
some men in the Church who are hypocrites ; therefore I 
don't purpose to go into the Church." I am not asking you 
to come into the Church — not but what I believe in churches — 
but I am asking you to the marriage supper of the Lamb ; 
I am inviting you to this feast; we will talk about the Church 
by-and-by. We want you to come to Christ first ; then we will 
talk to you about the Church. But you say ; "Here are some 
hypocrites." So there are; and I can imagine you saying; " Oh 
yes — there is a man up here in one of the churches that cheated 
me out of £5 a few years ago ; you are not going to catch me 
in the company of such hypocrites." Well, my friend, if you 
want to get out of the company of hypocrites, you had better 
get out of the world as quick as you can. One of the twelve 
apostles turned out to be a hypocrite ; and there is no doubt there 
will be hypocrites in the Church to the end of time. But " what 
is that to thee ? " says Christ to Peter : " follow thou me." We 
do not ask you to follow hypocrites, we ask you to follow Christ; 
we do not ask you to believe in hypocrites, we ask you to believe 
in Christ. Another thing,— if you want to get out of the com- 
pany of hypocrites you had better make haste and come to 
Christ. There will be no hypocrites at the marriage supper of 
the Lamb ; they will all be in hell, and you will be there with 
them if you do not make haste and come to Christ. That 
excuse would sound strange, would it not ? We very often hear 
men give it down here, but it would sound very strange before 
Jehovah— a man saying, " I know You invited me to be at the 



442 POPULAR EXCUSES. 

marriage supper of Your Son, but I did not accept it because I 
knew there were some hypocrites that professed the Gospel." 

There is another class who say ; " I know there are hypocrites, 
but they don't have any influence over me." If I could go to 
the door as you go out to-night, and take you by the hand and 
say, " My friend, why not accept of the invitation to-night ? " 
you would say, " I pray to be excused to-night ; I have not time. 
I have got some very pressing business to-morrow morning to 
attend to, and I have to go home to bed as quick as possible, 
to get my night's rest. You will have to excuse me." And the 
mothers here would say, " I have to go home and put the chil- 
dren to bed ; you really must excuse me " ; — " very pressing 
business"; — "no time." Thousands of men in London say 
they have not time. Thanks be to God ! it don't take time : it 
takes decision. But what have you done with all the time God 
has given you ? Your locks are turning grey, your eye is grow- 
ing dim, and that temple of your body is coming down : what 
have you done with all those years ? Is it true you have not time ? 
What did you do with the three hundred and sixty-five days last 
year ? No time ? — what have you done with it all ? Have 
not you had time to accept of this invitation? Why, men 
spend fifteen or twenty years to get an education, that they may 
go out to earn a living for this frail body that is soon to be 
eaten up with worms ; or five years to learn a trade, that they may 
earn a living ; and yet they have not five minutes to seek their 
souls' salvation ! You " have no time." Is it true? You know 
it is a lie ; and if you go out to-night unsaved, it will not be 
because you have not time, but because you won't accept the 
invitation. God says, " Seek/for/ the kingdom of God." That is 
the first thing to do. Supposing you do not get so much money 
to-morrow, and get Christ, is not that worth more than money ? 
Better for a man to be sure of salvation than to have the wealth 
of the world rolled to his feet ! 

But there is another excuse coming up from some one in the 
gallery. A man says, " My heart is so hard." Well, that is just 
the very reason you ought to come. If you had not a hard heart 
you would not need a Saviour. Can you soften your heart ? 
Can you break your heart ? Did not God invite the hard-hearted ? 
Did not Christ come to seek and to save that which was 
lost ? It is just because men's hearts are hard that they need a 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 443 



Saviour. That is no excuse at all. God invites you, and you 
won't stand up and tell the Great King you did not accept His 
the invitation because you had a hard heart. He invites "who- 
soever"; and you can come along with your hard heart. 

In the North there was a minister talking to a man in the 
inquiry room. He said, " My heart is so hard, it seems as if 
it was chained ; and I cannot come." " Ah ! " said the minister, 
" come to Christ, chain and all " ; and he just came to Christ, 
and Christ snapped the fetters, and set him free right there. 
If you are bound hand and foot by Satan, that is the work of 
God to break the fetters ; you cannot break them. Thanks be 
to God ! He can break the fetters and set the captive souls 
free to-night. I do not care how hard the heart is : the Lord 
can save to the uttermost ; He bids you come just as you are. 
Oh, this old excuse — " I am so bad !" Away with it ! 

Paul said he was the "chief" of sinners; and if the chief has 
gone up on high there is hope for everybody else. The devil makes 
us believe that we are good enough without salvation, if he can ; 
and if he cannot make us believe that, he says, " You are so bad 
the Lord won't have you " ; and so he tries to make people 
believe, because they are so bad Christ won't have anything to 
do with them. God invites you to come just as you are. I 
know a great many people want to come, but they are trying to 
get better and to get ready to come. Now mark you, my friend, 
the Lord invites you to come just as you are ; and if you could 
make yourself better you would not be any more acceptable to 
Him. Do not put these filthy rags of self-righteousness about you. 
God will strip every rag from you when you come to Him, and 
He will clothe you with glorious garments. When our war was 
going on, we would sometimes go to the recruiting office and see 
a man come in with a silk hat, broadcloth coat, calfskin boots — 
his suit might be worth $100 ; and another man would come in 
whose clothes were not worth a pound ; but they both had to 
strip, and put on the uniform of the country. And so when we 
go into Christ's vineyard we must put on the livery of heaven, 
and be stripped of every rag of our own. However bad you 
are, come just as you are, and the Lord will receive you. 

Some say ; " I would like to become a Christian ; but I have a 
prejudice against these special meetings, and against Americans, 
and against a layman too. If it was a regular minister, if it 



444 POPULAR EXCUSES. 



was our regular minister, I would accept the invitation." If 
that is your difficulty, I can help you out of that. You can just 
get up, and go out of the hall, and run right over to your 
minister, and have a talk with him ; your minister would be 
most glad to see and talk and pray with you. And if you say 
you do not want to be converted in a special meeting, there 
are regular meetings in all the churches throughout London. 
But if you say : " There is a great awakening here in London," 
and you do not want to be converted in that way ; then jump 
into a train, and go to some town where there is no revival. 
We can find you some place where there is no revival, and some 
church where there is not much of the revival spirit. If you 
really want to go, don't give that for an excuse. How wise the 
devil is ! When the Church is cold, and everything is dead, 
men say, " Oh, well, if there was only some life in the Church I 
might become a Christian, — if we could only just have a wave 
from heaven !" Then when the wave does come, they say, " Oh 
no ; we are afraid of excitement, and afraid of these special 
meetings. We are afraid there will be something done that 
won't be just in accordance with our ideas of propriety." My 
friend, it is God who is working. He prepares the way. 

There is another class here who say : " I would like to com e ; 
but then I do not feel." That is, I think, the very worst excuse, 
and the most common excuse we have. I wish sometimes the 
word could be abolished, — feel ! feel ! You go into the inquiry 
room. " Well, Mr. Moody, I do not feel this and that." Why, 
supposing my friend Mr. Stone should invite me to go to his 
house to-morrow to dinner, and I say to Mr. Stone, " I should 
like to go very much, but I don't know that I feel right." "Well," 
he says, " what do you mean ? Do you mean you don't want to 
go to my house ? " " Oh no, I want to go." (That is what men 
say: " Oh yes, we want to be saved.") "What do you mean, 
Mr. Moody ? Do you mean that you do not know you will 
be well to-morrow? Do you think you will be sick?" "Oh 
no, I expect to be well to-morrow, if I live." " Well, what do 
you mean by feeling ? " " Well, I do not know just how I'll 
feel. I would like very much to go to your house to dinner to- 
morrow, but I don't know that I will feel just right." " I don't 
understand you, Mr. Moody ; I am not talking about feeling ; I 
invite you to come to my house to dinner." " Well, I would 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 445 

like to come very much, but the fact is, I do not know 
how I will feel to-morrow." I can imagine my friend 
saying, " What has come over Moody ? I think the fellow 
has gone mad. I asked him to my house to dinner, and he 
says he would like to come, but he does not know that he will feel- 
right ; he talked about feeling all the time." Of course you 
would say he has gone mad. But that is the way people talk 
now. You speak to them about coming to the kingdom of God, 
and they say ; " I do not know that I feel just right." Away with 
your feelings. God is above feeling. We cannot control 
our feelings ? If I could, I would feel good all the time — never 
catch me feeling bad at anything ! I am sure if I could control 
my feelings I never would have any bad feelings ; I would always 
have good feelings. Bear in mind, Satan may change our feel- 
ings fifty times a day, but he cannot change the Word of God ; 
and what we want is to build our hopes of heaven upon the 
Word of God- When a poor sinner is coming up out of the 
pit, and just ready to get his feet upon the Rock of Ages, the 
devil sticks out a plank of feeling, and says ; " Get on that"; and 
when he puts his feet on that, down he goes again. Take one of 
these texts — " Verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word 
and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life, and 
shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death 
unto life." My friend, that is worth more than all the feelings 
that you can have in a whole lifetime. I would a thousand times 
rather stand on that verse than on the best frame of feeling. 
I took my stand there twenty years ago. The dark waves of 
hell have come dashing up against me ; the waves of persecu- 
tion have surged around me ; doubts, fears, and unbelief have 
assailed me ; but I have been able to stand right there. It is a 
sure footing for eternity. It was true eighteen hundred years ago, 
and it is true to-night. That Rock is higher than my feeling. 
What we want is to get our feet upon the Rock, and then the 
Lord will put a new song into our mouths. 

There is another class, who say they cannot believe. Not 
long ago, a man said to me; "I cannot believe." I said, 
"Who?" "Well, I cannot believe." I said, "Who?" He 
stammered and stuttered, and I said ; " Who cannot you believe, 
— God ? " " Oh yes, I believe God : I cannot believe myself." 
"Well, you do not want to believe yourself. Your heart is 



446 POPULAR EXCUSES. 



deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Put no 
confidence in the flesh. Don't believe yourself ; call yourself a 
liar, and let God be true. Believe in God, and say as Job said ; 
' Though He slay me I will trust Him.' " Some men seem to talk 
as if it was a great misfortune that they do not believe. Bear in 
mind, it is the damning sin of the world. " When He, the Holy 
Ghost, is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, because they believe not 
on me." That is the sin of the world— "because they believe 
not on me." Why, that is the very root of sin — the very tree, 
and all the fruit! This is the tree that brings forth this bad 
fruit — it is the tree of unbelief. 

I wish I had time to go on with these excuses ; for they are 
as numerous as the hairs on our heads. But if I could go on 
and exhaust them all, the devil would help to make more. 
You can just take them, tie them up in one bundle, and mark 
them lies — the whole of them. Not one of them is true. If 
your excuse is a good one, if it will stand the light of eternity 
do not give it up for anything I have said. Hold it firm, take it 
to the bar of God, and tell it out to Him. But if you have an 
excuse that won't stand the piercing eye of God, I beg of you, 
as a friend, give it up — let your excuses go. Let them go to the 
four winds of heaven, and accept of the invitation now. It is a 
very easy thing for a man to excuse himself into hell, but 
he cannot excuse himself out. 

I wish I had time to call your attention to, who will be at the 
marriage supper of the Lamb. Lift your eyes heavenward to- 
night, mothers ; you have loved children that have gone on 
before you ; they will be at the marriage supper of the 
Lamb ; they will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in 
the kingdom of God : will you be missing ? Fathers and 
mothers who have loved ones that have gone on before you ! if 
you could hear them, they are shouting from the battlements of 
heaven ; " Come this way." Young man, you have a sainted 
mother there, — a loved father there : they are beckoning you 
heavenward to-night. They have been gathering from the time 
the holy Abel went up : for six thousand years, gathering out of 
the four corners of the earth. The purest and best of earth are 
here ; they are in heaven: and God wants you and me to be there. 
Blessed is he that shall be at the marriage supper of the Lamb ! 



POPULAR EXCUSES. 447 



Dare you make light of the invitation? Suppose you should just 
write out an excuse to the King of Heaven : "While sitting in 
the Camberwell Hall July 10th, 1875, 1 received a very pressing 
invitation from one of Your messengers to be present at the 
marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son. I pray Thee have 
me excused." Would you come up and sign that ? Would you 
take your pen and put your name down to that excuse ? I can 
imagine you saying, you would let your right hand forget its 
cunning, and your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth first. 
I doubt whether there is a man in this room who could be made 
to sign this excuse : but what will you do ? Many of you will 
get up and go out of this hall, making light of the preacher, 
laughing at everything you have heard, paying no attention to 
the invitation. I beg of you, do not make light of this invitation. 
It is a loving God that invites you ; but God is not to be 
mocked. Go, play with the forked lightning, trifle with any 
pestilence, any disease, rather than with God. God is not to be 
trifled with. 

Just let me write out another reply : " To the King of Heaven. 
While sitting in the Camberwell Hall July 10th, 1875, I- 
received a pressing invitation from one of Your servants to be 
present at the marriage supper of Your only-begotten Son. I 
hasten to reply, By the grace of God I will be present." Who 
will sign that ? (Many replies of " I will ! » "I will ! ") Who will 
set to their seal to-night that God is true ? Be wise to-night 
and accept of the invitation. Make up your mind now : do not 
go away till the question of eternity is settled, 



448 



the Prophet daniel, in mr. Moody's 

VERSION. 

TO those who have heard or read the stately and 
brilliant oration of Dr. Punshon on " Daniel in 
Babylon," by which this line of address was first 
suggested to Mr. Moody, this rendering of the story 
in modern and homely language will be especially 
interesting. The contrast in style will be striking, 
but the power and effect of the two discourses will be 
found almost identical. A diversity of gifts ; but the 
same spirit. 

When we come to the life of such a man as Daniel, the first 
thing we ask is : What was the secret of his success ? Well, 
my friends, I'll tell you what I think was the secret of this man's 
success ; — He knew his God. 

A great many professing Christians never get on intimate 
terms with their God, and so they never amount to much. But 
Daniel, from his boyhood, knew and trusted in, the God of 
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; and 
that was what put such courage into him. 

There is another very important thing about Daniel : he was 
able to say no ! at the right time. 

I tell you, my friends, it would be a great thing for our young 
men to be able to say NO ! when the devil comes up to them 
and begins to coax them away from the God of their father and 
mother. 

We don't know just how old he was when we hear of him. 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 449 

first : probably about seventeen. The king Nebuchadnezzar 
had given orders to take some of the best and brightest boys 
among the Hebrew captives and bring them up among his wise 
men. They were to be taught the language and the learning of 
the Chaldeans, and to be fed with meat and wine from the 
king's table. 

" But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile 
himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine 
which he drank." There was something in the law of his God 
forbidding him to eat meat or drink wine which had been 
offered to idols ; and Daniel knew that the king's meat and the 
king's wine had been offered to idols, so he determined not to 
touch it. 

If he had been like a good many of our modern Christians, 
he would have said something like this : " Well, it can't be 
helped. I don't like to defile myself this way ; the law of God 
forbids it ; and if I were only home in Jerusalem I never would 
do it in the world. But I really don't see how we are going to 
help it. We are slaves. Besides, it is the king's special order; 
and if he should hear of our disobedience, our heads would 
come off in no time. Really, we can't be expected to run such 
a risk as that." 

That's it : the devil told him to do in Babylon as the people 
of Babylon do. But Daniel had the courage to stand up to the 
law of his God, and say no / 

Consequences ? Never mind the consequences. There 
wasn't any such word in his dictionary when it came to 
obeying the law of his God. He was bound to do it, let the 
consequences be what they might. 

Do you hear what it says here in this eighth verse of the first 
chapter? "Daniel purposed in his heart" That's the trouble 
with a great many people : they purpose to do right, but they 
only purpose in their heads, and that doesn't amount to much. 
If you are going to be Christians, you must purpose to serve 
God away down in your hearts. " With the heart man believeth 
unto righteousness." 

So when the servant who had charge of them came to bring 
them their dinner, Daniel and his three young friends told him 
they couldn't eat that meat and drink that wine, because it was 
against the law of their God. 

20 



450 THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

Look at that ! Daniel doesn't try to dodge the question at 
all ; he gives the true reason right out at once. 

I am afraid some of you, if you had been in his place, would 
have tried to hide behind some excuse. You would say you 
weren't very well ; or that meat and wine didn't agree with you. 
Not so with Daniel. He tells that heathen the true reason why 
he can't eat the king's meat or drink the king's wine, and I have 
no doubt the man respected him for it. 

" But," says he, " it won't do at all. If you don't eat it, the 
king will find it out. He'll see you some time looking lean and 
thin, and he'll ask what the matter is, and then I shall lose my 
head as well as you." 

" Just try us for ten days," says Daniel. " Give us pulse to 
eat and water to drink, and see how we get along on it." 

So the servant tried them on the pulse and water, and at the 
end of ten days they were the fattest and best looking of the 
whole crowd. 

Some people think wine makes them look better, and that 
they can't get along without it. Look at their red noses and 
bloated faces ! 

I tell you, all the stimulant a person needs is the Word and 
the Grace of God. 

There was a soldier down in Tennessee when I was there, — a 
great strong, hearty fellow, who was a teetotaler. One day, 
when the army was going on a long march, a man offered him a 
drink of whisky. 

"lama teetotaler," was his reply. 

" Never mind that. You're in the army now ; besides, you 
need some stimulant to help you on this long march." 

Taking out a pocket Bible, he held it up before the face of his 
tempter, and said,— 

« That is all the stimulant I want." 

Just so with Daniel. He took God's side in this question, and 
held to God's terms, and God made him strong and healthy ; 
gave him favour with those who saw his honesty, and, above all a 
peace in his own soul. 

The next we hear of him is about two years after. 

I seem to see the officer coming in and laying his hand on 
Daniel's shoulder, and arresting him in the king's name. 

" What's the matter ?" says Daniel. 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 451 

" Why, haven't you heard ?" says the officer. " The ki»g had 
a dream last night, and when he woke up he couldn't remember 
it ; so he called all his wise men together, and asked them to 
tell him his dream, and then interpret it for him. Nobody 
could tell it. The king was so angry that he commanded that 
all the wise men should be put to death. You belong to that 
school ; so you will have to die." 

" It seems to me the king is rather hasty," says Daniel — cool 
and calm as a summer morning. " Just let him give us a little 
time, and I'll show him his dream and the interpretation also." 

He knew his God and trusted in Him. All secrets belong to 
God. 

That night Daniel and his three friends had a little prayer- 
meeting together. I have no doubt they read the story of 
Joseph ; how the dreams of old Pharaoh were revealed to him ; 
and how he came to be a great man in Egypt afterwards. And 
then they went to sleep. 

I don't think many of you would have gone to sleep with such 
danger as that hanging over your heads. But Daniel slept ; and 
in his sleep the king's dream was revealed to him. 

The next morning there was a great stir all about the palace. 
It had got out that a young Hebrew captive was going to tell the 
king his dream, and save the lives of all the wise men of Babylon ; 
and everybody was anxious to know all about it. 

I can see the young man brought into the presence of the 
mighty monarch. He stands there without the slightest fear. 
His God, in whom he trusted, has made him master of the 
situation. The king looks at him, and says, " Young man, can 
you tell me my dream and the interpretation of it ? " 

" My God can ! " answers Daniel ; and he begins. 

" In your dream, O king, you saw an image " 

" That's it /" says Nebuchadnezzar, his face lighting up all at 
once ; " you've got it ! I remember it all now." 

" Yes," says Daniel ; " my God revealed it to me last night in 
a dream." You see he doesn't take any credit to himself for r, 
but gives the glory to his God. 

u The head of this great image was gold, his breast and his 
arms were silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of 
iron, and his feet part of iron and part of clay. And then, O 
king, you saw a stone cut out without hands, which struck the 



452 THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 



image upon its feet, and crushed it to pieces till it became like 
the dust of the summer threshing-floor." 

" That's all right," says the king. " Now can you tell me the 
interpretation of it ? " 

Now I imagine some of you would have tried to soften down 
the interpretation a little. It was a pretty hard thing for Daniel 
to stand up there before that great monarch, and tell him his 
kingdom was to be like the dust of a summer threshing-floor : 
but he did it. 

" Thou art this head of gold. And after thee shall arise 
another kingdom inferior to thee ; and another third kingdom 
of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth. And the 
fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron. Afterwards it shall be 
divided, and become part strong and part weak. And in the 
days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom 
which shall never be destroyed ; it shall break in pieces and 
destroy all those kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." 

The king was greatly pleased with Daniel, and made a great 
man of him ; and, for his sake, put his three friends into office. 
You see Daniel didn't forget his friends when he got into a good 
place himself. 

Well : not long after that — maybe it was the dream that put 
it into his head — Nebuchadnezzar made a great image, and set 
it up in the plains of Dura. It was about ninety feet high and 
about nine feet wide. Some people say it was made of solid 
gold. I rather think the king intended that image to represent 
himself. He was going to have a universal religion, and he 
was going to be the head of it, — there are some such people 
now-a-days, — and so he gave orders to have all the nobility and 
great officers of his kingdom brought together to worship the 
golden image which he had set up. 

I don't know where Daniel was at this time. Perhaps he was 
away in some other part of the kingdom on business ; but his 
friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, were there to 
represent him. Their enemies were there too. A faithful 
servant of God is sure to have enemies, watching for a chance 
to get him out of the way. 

It was a great day when the image was unveiled. I 
seem to see it flashing in the sunlight ; the vast throng of wor- 
shippers standing around it ; and the king, at the head of a 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 45 j 

splendid procession of his lords and ladies, coming across the 
plain with banners flying and music playing : really, it must 
have been a trying time for those three men, who were so much 
out of fashion as not to bow down to the great idol when every- 
body else was doing it. 

But the law of their God and the law of the king were in 
conflict. The king said, Bow down ! God said, No ! — and it 
didn't take them a minute to decide what to do. 

Some people would have said, "There's no great harm in 
bowing with all the rest ; but then you needn't worship, you 
know : just bend your knees a little, but don't say any prayers 
to the idol." 

Not a bit of it. These men were not going to compromise 
their consciences ; and their enemies knew it very well. The 
hour has arrived ; everything is ready ; the king makes a sign 
with his hand, and the cornets and sackbuts, and all the other 
instruments, give a great blast, and the whole multitude fall 
down on their faces before the great image which Nebuchad- 
nezzar the king has set up. No ; not all ! There are three 
pairs of stiff knees in that kingdom — three men who will not 
bow to the false god. Their enemies have taken care to put 
them in the front rank, near to themselves, where they can 
watch them, and so find occasion to accuse them to the king. 

I seem to see these fellows looking out of the corners of their 
eyes, when, by the king's command, they ought to have been 
worshipping the idol ; and I hear them saying to themselves, 
" Aha ! we have got you now ! " and so they go to tell the king. 

" O king ! live for ever. Do you know that there are three 
men in your kingdom who will not obey you ? " 

"No: who are they?" 

" Three of those Hebrew captives : they don't bow down 
along with the rest of us ; and we thought you would like to 
know it." 

" Bring them to me," says the king, in a great rage ; " I will 
see whether these fellows are going to disobey my orders like 
this." 

It is quite likely he would have ordered their heads to be 
taken off at once, if he had not remembered that they were 
particular friends of Daniel. 

Now they stand face to face with the great king. 



4$4 THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

" What is this I hear of you ? " says Nebuchadnezzar. "They 
say you disobey my orders, and do not bow down and worship 
my golden image. Now, I will try you once more ; and then, 
if you don't bow down, into the furnace you go." 

We do not know who the speaker was on that occasion ; per- 
haps it was Shadrach. He stands there with his two friends, 
looking calmly at the king, and thinking of the fiery furnace 
without trembling in the least, or feeling the slightest fear. And 
this is what he says, — 

" We are not careful to answer thee in this matter, O king. 
The God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning 
fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 
But whether He deliver us or not, we will not bow down." 

" Who is this God of yours, that is able to deliver you out of 
my hands ? " says the king, in a towering rage. " Go and heat 
that furnace seven times hotter than ever, and take these fellows 
up, and thrust them into it. Be quick about it. I will not have 
such rebels in my kingdom." 

So some of the king's servants hurry away to the furnace 
to stir up the fire, and others seize Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abed-nego, and take them away ; and when the furnace doors 
are opened, they come near to cast them into the fire, — which is 
so hot that it burns the servants to death, but does not harm 
the men who are cast down headlong into it. Then the king 
goes and looks into the furnace ; and what is his astonishment 
at seeing four men, instead of three, walking in the midst of the 
fire, as safely as if they were in the king's garden ! 

" Did I not tell you to cast in three men ? — and lo ! I see 
four walking about in the fire ; and the form of the fourth is 
like the Son of God." 

The Lord Himself was with His three faithful servants. The 
great Palestine Shepherd looked down from heaven, and saw 
those three sheep of His flock about to be cast into the fire : and 
He made haste, and came down Himself, to see that they suffered 
no harm. Ah ! Jesus is always with His people. Though they 
pass through water, they shall not be drowned ; though they pass 
through the fire, they shall not be burned. The fire burned 
off only the devil's bands : it did not singe a hair of their heads. 

Does not Christ say that the hairs of our heads are all num- 
bered ? There is wonderful care and love in that. 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 455 

Did you ever know a mother who loved her little child so well 
that she would count the hairs on its curly head ? But the Lord 
loves His children so well that He counts their hairs — every one ; 
and not one of them comes to any harm, so long as His child is 
faithful to Him. There was not even the smell of fire upon their 
garments ; and the king's counsellors, and princes, and governors, 
and captains, and all together, saw these men upon whose 
bodies the fire had no power. 

My friends, let us remember that it is always safe to do what 
God wants us to do. If our way to heaven leads through fire 
and water, it is all the same : it is all right. That is the proper 
way for us to go. 

And now King Nebuchadnezzar orders these men to come out ; 
and he restored them to their places again. He has found out 
who was the God that was able to deliver His servants out of 
the hands of the king ; and I am quite sure that, from this time, 
neither the king nor anybody else in Babylon ventured to say 
anything against those men, or against the God whom they 
worshipped, and who had delivered them out of the fiery 
furnace. 

The king himself makes a decree, " that every people, nation, 
and language, which shall speak anything amiss against the God 
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, shall be cut in pieceSj 
and their houses shall be made a dunghill, because there is nO 
other God that can deliver after this sort." So the king pro- 
moted these men ; and, instead of being burned to death in the" 
furnace, they came to be more honourable than ever. 

The next thing that we hear of the king is, that he has had 
another dream. He seems to have been a great man for dreams. 
This time he saw a great tree which " reached unto heaven, and 
the sight thereof to the end of all the earth ; . . . and, behold, a 
watcher and an holy one came down from heaven, and cried 
aloud : ' Hew down this tree, and cut down his branches, shake 
off his leaves, and scatter his fruit : let the beasts get away from 
under it, and the fowls from its branches. Nevertheless, leave 
the stump of his roots in the earth. . . . Let his heart be changed 
from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him, and let 
seven times pass over him : to the intent that the living may 
know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and 
giveth it to whomsoever He will.' " 



456 THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

The king seems to have been as much puzzled by this dream 
as by the other ; and nobody could tell him what it meant, until 
he sent for Daniel. Even he was troubled about it at first ; but 
presently the Lord showed it to him ; and then he preached such 
a sermon to the king about his pride, and the necessity of re- 
pentance, that the king's face turned pale, and his knees began 
to shake, and it was not long before he lost his reason, and wan- 
dered away from his palace, out into the woods and the deserts, 
and became more like a beast than a man. But at last the 
Lord had mercy on him. His counsellors and princes gathered 
about him again, and brought him back to his palace. But the 
king's heart was softened. I think he became truly converted 
to God; and from this time we don't hear him saying any more : 
" Is not this great Babylon that I have builded ?" But we hear 
him blessing the Most High, and praising and honouring Him 
whose dominion is everlasting, and whose kingdom is from 
generation to generation. 

And now the king makes one more proclamation, different 
from all the others. Up to this time he has been telling other 
people what to do ; now he begins to speak of his own duty, 
and he says, " I, Nebuchadnezzar, will do this — I will do that." 
" I will praise and extol and honour the King of Heaven, all of 
whose works are truth." He has found out his own duty. His 
heart is softened ; and although we do not hear anything more 
of him, I have no doubt that Daniel and he used to walk the 
streets of Babylon, arm-in-arm, and talk over their experiences 
together ; and when the king died, I feel quite sure that he went 
safely to heaven, to be welcomed by the God of Daniel ; and 
through the long eternity King Nebuchadnezzar will rejoice that 
that young man, Daniel, took his stand for God when he came 
down to Babylon, and did not follow the fashion of that wicked 
capital, though it might have cost him his life. 

The next thing we hear of Babylon is, that the grandson of 
Nebuchadnezzar, a wild young prince, called Belshazzar, has 
come to the throne. On a certain occasion he makes a great 
feast to a thousand of his lords. They come together in a great 
banquet-chamber, and they drink and carouse all night long. 
They do not care for the armies of Cyrus, which are besieging 
the city. They trust in its high walls and its gates of brass, 
and feel themselves perfectly safe. At last, when the head of the 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 457 

young king has been quite turned with wine, he orders the golden 
vessels, which his grandfather captured from God's temple at 
Jerusalem, to be brought into the banquet-hall, that they may 
drink wine out of them in honour of the gods of Babylon. But 
while they are doing this impious thing, behold, a hand appears, 
writing with its fingers upon the wall — the doom of the kingdom 
of Babylon. 

Drunk as he is, the miserable king is frightened. 

" Bring in the wise men," says he. And the wise men come 
in haste, and stare at the writing, but not one of them is able to 
read or understand it. No uncircumcised eye can read God's 
handwriting. 

Somehow or other, the news of this strange affair reaches 
the ears of the king's mother ; and she sends a servant to him, 
telling him that, in the days of his grandfather, there was a man 
in Babylon who could interpret dreams, and reveal secrets, and 
do all manner of strange things, and maybe he would be able to 
read the writing. 

It seems that Daniel had been lost sight of for the last fifteen 
years ; but now there is special work for him to do ; and so 
they find him out, and bring him in and ask him to read the 
writing. " Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin " ; and the meaning of 
it was clear as daylight to him. 

Now I have no doubt that a good many courtiers, if they had 
seen such writing as that upon the wall of the king's palace, 
would have softened the meaning of it a little, and not have 
given it in its full strength, for fear of offending the king. But 
that was not Daniel's fashion at all. He reads it just as God 
writes it. " Mene: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and 
finished it. Tekel : Thou art weighed in the balances, and art 
found wanting. Peres : Thy kingdom is divided, and given to 
the Medes and the Persians." 

Ah ! poor miserable Belshazzar ! Even now the soldiers of 
Cyrus have turned away the waters of the Euphrates, and are 
coming into the city along the empty banks. The soldiers are 
battering away at the doors of your palace, and before morning 
your blood shall be spilled upon the stones, along with the wine 
which you have been drinking, out of the vessels from God's 
holy temple at Jerusalem. You are weighed in God's balance, 
and found wanting. 

20* 



458 THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

My friends, suppose God should begin to weigh some of you 
to-day ; suppose you were to step into the balances now, don't 
you think you would be found wanting ? Get into the scales, 
take along with you your education, and your wealth, and your 
dignity, and your fashion, and your fine clothes, and every- 
thing you have that is splendid, — and the Lord will put the ten 
commandments in the other, and up you will go like feathers 
— "weighed in the balances and found wanting." Only they 
who have Christ in their souls can stand the test of God's 
weighing. Dare you step into the balances to-day ? 

Some one will ask me, " Mr. Moody, dare you step into the 
balances to-day, and be weighed? Do you know that you 
would be saved, if the Lord should bring you to judgment?" 
Yes ; thanks be to God, Christ is able to save me — even me ; 
and He will save all of you who will cast off your sins, and take 
Christ instead. 

After a while, Darius, the Mede, comes to the throne of 
Babylon. He must have met Daniel somewhere in his travels, 
for no sooner does he set up the kingdom than he puts him 
into a place of great power. He chooses a hundred and twenty 
princes, whom he places over the kingdom ; and over these 
princes he appoints three presidents, and he makes Daniel the 
president of the presidents : so that he really is the first man 
in the kingdom, after the king. His business was to " see that 
the king suffered no damage " ; that is, he was to keep watch of 
the accounts, to see that nobody cheated the king. This must 
have been a very difficult place, and Daniel must have had 
his hands full. He had to watch those hundred and twenty 
rascals, who were all the while trying to steal something off the 
revenue ; and to go over their accounts again and again, so as 
to be certain that they were correct to a penny. 

It was not long before Daniel became very unpopular with 
the princes. I seem to hear them talking amongst themselves 
in this way : — 

" There is that miserable old Jew, Daniel : if we only had him 
out of the way, we could make no end of money. We would 
very speedily be rich ; we would have our country houses and 
our city houses, and our fine horses and chariots, and we would 
live in the very highest style, off the revenues of this kingdom ; 
but that old fellow watches us as narrowly as a cat watches a 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 459 

mouse. We can't cheat him — even to a shilling." " Why," says 
one, " I never saw such a man in all my life. I gave in an ac- 
count the other day that was only a few pounds short ; and did 
not he send it back to me, and make me pay the difference ? I 
wish he were back in Jerusalem, where he came from." 

However, the king trusted Daniel ; and he was such a 
thoroughly good and honest man that they really could find no 
way to revenge themselves upon him. They talked it over 
together again and again, and all agreed that there was no 
chance of getting him out of the way, unless they could find 
something in his religion by which they could bring him into 
trouble. 

" We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except 
we find it against him concerning the law of his God." What 
an honour ! Nothing wrong with him — even in the eyes of 
these bad men — except that he was too faithful to his God ! 

How many of you are likely to be complained of on that 
account ? 

Finally, they hit upon a plan which they thought might pos- 
sibly succeed. One night they are closeted together in secret ; 
and one of the princes says to the rest : " I think I have got a 
plan that will work. You know King Darius is very popular, 
and he is very proud of it. The people praise him a great deal, 
and he likes it. Now suppose we ask him to establish a royal 
decree, ' that whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man 
for thirty days, save of the king, he shall be cast into the den 
of lions.' That will be putting the king in the place of the 
gods, and he is most likely to be flattered by that of anything I 
can think of : then, if once we can get that old Hebrew into the 
lion's den, we shall make a good deal more money than we have 
been able to do with him watching us all the time." 

This notion seemed to please the princes very well. They 
drew up the document immediately. It would not do to let 
Daniel hear of it, before the king should sign it ; and so they 
appointed a committee to take the decree down to the palace 
the very first thing in the morning. There were some lawyers 
among these hundred and twenty princes ; and I seem to see 
them drawing out the law with great care, making it firm and 
binding — laughing to themselves, and saying : " The laws of 
the Medes and Persians change not. If once we can get Darius 



46a THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL, 

to stamp this document with his signet-ring, Daniel is done for, 
sure enough." 

So the committee go down to the palace next morning to 
obtain his signature. They begin by flattering him. If a man 
wants another to do a mean thing, he always begins by appeal- 
ing to his vanity. 

" O king, we have been thinking how popular you are in your 
kingdom, and what you might do to make yourself even more 
famous than you are ; and we have come to the conclusion that, 
if you would publish a decree that nobody in the kingdom, for 
thirty days, should pray to any other god except yourself, it 
would turn the hearts of all the people towards you even more 
than now. We should then have a universal religion, and the 
king would be at the head of it." 

Darius felt flattered by this proposition. He turned it over in 
his mind, and presently said, — 

" That seems sensible." 

" All right," said the princes. " We thought you would like 
it ; and in order that there might not be any delay, we have the 
document here already drawn up. Now if you will please to 
stamp this with your signet-ring, we shall have it published right 
away." 

The king takes the document, reads it over, stamps his seal 
upon it ; and the committee go away laughing, and saying, 
" Ha, ha ! old Hebrew, we will have you in the den of lions 
before night." 

The princes lost no time in publishing the new decree of the 
king. I can imagine some one of Daniel's friends, who had 
seen the document, going up to his office in great haste, to give 
him warning that there was some trouble brewing. 

" Have you heard the news, Daniel ? Those hundred and 
twenty princes have gone and got Darius to publish a decree 
that nobody shall pray to any other god, except him, for thirty 
days. That is a conspiracy against you. Now I want to give 
you a little advice ; and that is, to get out of this town in a hurry. 

But Daniel says he can't leave his business. He is afraid 
these hundred and twenty princes will cheat the revenues while 
he is away. His duty is right there, and he is determined to stay 
there and attend to it. 

"Well, then, had you not better pray more secretly? You 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL, 461 

have a habit, that is all well enough in ordinary times, of going 
up to your chamber, where the windows open towards Jerusalem, 
and saying your prayers there three times a day. And some- 
times you pray pretty loud, and people out of doors can hear 
you. Now just shut your windows while you pray, for the next 
thirty days ; for these princes are sure to have some spies 
watching you at your prayers. You had better stop up the key- 
hole of your door also, for these mean fellows are not above 
peeping in to watch you. It would be still better, Daniel, if you 
would not kneel down at all, but say your prayers after you get 
into bed." 

Ah ! how many young men have gone to Oxford, or Cambridge, 
and lost their peace of mind and their hope in Christ, because 
they were afraid to pray before their room-mates ! 

And what does Daniel say to such advice as this ? He scouts 
it. He tramples it under his feet. No man shall hinder him 
from praying. No king shall frighten him out of his duty. He 
attends to his morning's work ; looks over the accounts as usual; 
and when twelve o'clock comes, he goes to his chamber, puts the 
windows wide open, kneels down and prays, not to Darius, but 
to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. His windows are 
opened towards Jerusalem, and his face is turned that way ; for 
Jerusalem is dearer to him than his life, and the God of his fathers 
is his sure defence. I can seem to see him kneeling there — that 
old man, with his white locks and beard, praying at the proba- 
ble cost of his life ; but he does not seem to be troubled by the 
danger ; neither is he angry at the command of the king or the 
manifest wickedness of those hundred and twenty princes. He 
prays for the king, his friend, — who, he is sure, has done this 
wickedness in some thoughtless moment. He prays for his 
enemies, the princes, who are wickedly seeking to destroy him. 

Those men have taken care that two witnesses shall be under- 
neath Daniel's windows at the time when he usually goes to 
pray. " Hark ! " says one to the other. " Did you hear that ? 
The old man is up there praying, sure enough ! Listen : he is 
not praying to King Darius." 

" No," says the other ; " he is praying to the God of the 
Hebrews." 

So they listen till the prayer is finished, and then they hurry 
away to the princes, to give their evidence against Daniel; 



462 THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 

and the princes lose no time in laying the matter before the 
king. 

" O King Darius ! live for ever. Is it not written that the 
laws of the Medes and the Persians change not ? '- 

"It is," said Darius; "anything that is stamped with the 
king's seal cannot be changed." 

" That is what we thought," said the princes. " Did you not 
make a decree that no man should pray to any other god than 
to the king?" 

" Yes, I did," said Darius. 

Then they tell him that the chief of the presidents— this 
Daniel, the Hebrew — has refused to obey the king's command. 
Poor Darius ! 

" What a mistake I have made ! " says he. " I might have 
known that Daniel would not obey such a command as that. 
I had quite forgotten about him when I made it." There is 
not a man in all Babylon who is so troubled as the king. The 
account says that " he laboured till the going down of the sun 
to deliver Daniel." But the command had gone forth, the law 
had been made, and it could not be changed, even for the sake 
of Daniel himself. 

If Darius had loved his friend only as much as Christ loves 
us, he would have gone down into the den of lions for him. 
Our Darius, our King, counted not His life dear unto Himself, 
but freely delivered it up for us. 

At sundown the king's officers go for the old man, to take 
him away to the lions. They bind his hands behind his back, 
and lead him along the streets of Babylon towards the den. 
The whole city goes out to see the sad procession. The princes 
look out of their windows, and rub their hands, and laugh over 
the success of their wicked plot ; and the people look on in 
wonder, to see such a sweet-faced old man led away to die like 
a criminal ; and poor Darius walks the chamber of his palace, 
wringing his hands in agony, saying, "Ah me ! I have destroyed 
my friend." 

But Daniel walks with a firm step. His old knees don't 
shake a bit. The wind of the evening plays with his white 
locks, and with a smile upon his face he goes to meet the lions. 
He has served his God now for seventy long years, and he feels 
sure that God will not desert him in this great hour of trial. I 



THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 463 

* ~- — ■ — ■ ■ 

can imagine him saying, " My God can bring me out of the 
jaws of the lions just as easily as He saved my three friends 
from the furnace of fire. But even if they eat me, I shall only 
die for my God." And when they put him into the den, God 
sent one of His angels to shut the mouths of the lions. 

At the hour of the evening prayer, Daniel kneels in the 
den ; and if he can get the points of the compass down there, 
he prays with his face towards Jerusalem ; and then, taking one 
of the lions for his pillow, he lies down and sleeps, as sweetly as 
any man in Babylon. The king sits up all night, thinking 
what his folly has cost him — even the life of his most faithful 
servant. But he remembers that the God of Daniel has done 
strange things for them who trusted Him. He has heard of 
Shadrach and his friends coming out of the fiery furnace ; and 
he knows that Daniel went into the den feeling that his God 
would go with him and save him. At the first dawn of day he 
orders out his chariot, and you can hear the wheels rattling over 
the pavements of Babylon before the people are up. Away he 
goes, with his horses on the run, to the door of the lion's den ; 
springs out of the chariot ; looks down into it, and with a voice 
trembling with anxiety, cries out, " O Daniel, servant of the 
living God ; is that God whom thou servest continually, able to 
deliver thee from the lions ? " 

Hark ! There comes up a voice out of the den. It is the 
voice of Daniel ; to whom this morning is like the morning of 
the resurrection. He has been down to the gates of death, and 
yet he is alive. 

" O king ! live for ever. My God hath sent His angel and 
shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." 

Oh how glad King Darius was to hear the voice of his friend 
once more ! He has him brought up out of the den, takes him 
up in his arms, into his chariot ; and away they go, home to 
the palace, to breakfast together and talk over this wonderful 
deliverance. 

Then King Darius published another decree. The experience 
of Daniel had thoroughly converted him ; and now he declares 
" that, in every dominion of his kingdom, man shall tremble and 
fear before the God of Daniel, who worketh signs and wonders 
in heaven and earth, and hath delivered His servant from the 
power of the lions." 



464 THE STORY OF THE PROPHET DANIEL. 



We have not time, this morning, to follow the history of this 
man any further. Three times a messenger came down from 
heaven, to tell him that he was greatly beloved of the Lord 
The Spirit of God was with him, and the hand of God protected 
him. 

May the God of Daniel be with us — the courage of Daniel be 
in us ! May we have grace to confess the Lord, to go through 
the fire and amongst the lions, if need be, for the sake of His 
truth ; and at last, after all the trials of this life are over, may 
we be so happy as to sit down with Daniel and all the ancient 
worthies, in the kingdom of our God ! 



46s 



"WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?" 

Mr. Moody s Last Sermon in London. Preached in Camberwell 
Hall, Sunday Evejiing, July ntn, 1875. 

I SUPPOSE you do not want to hear a sermon on this last 
night so much as you want to know how to be saved. I 
want, if I can, to answer that question, " What must I do to 
be saved ? " There is no question that can come before us in 
this world that is so important ; and I think that there is not 
a man in this audience to-night who does not feel interested 
in it. I heard a man, when he was going out the other night, 
saying : "I do not believe in sudden conversion. I do not 
believe what the preacher said to-night, that a man could 
come in here a sinner, and go out a Christian." Now, I 
want to say that I do not believe in any other conversion. 
I do not believe that there ever has been a conversion in the 
world that was not instantaneous, and I want you to mark 
this : not but what many cannot tell the day nor the hour 
when they were converted. I will admit that : they may not 
know the time ; but that does not change the great fact that 
there was a time when they passed from death unto life ; that 
there was a time when they were born into the kingdom of God. 
There must have been a minute when their name was written in 
the Book of Life. There must have been a time when they were 
lost, and a time when they were saved ; but we may not be con- 
scious when the change takes place. I believe the conversion 
of some is like the rising of the sun, and of others like the 
flashing of a meteor. But both are instantaneous, really, in 
the sight of God. There must be a time when life begins to 
rise ; when the dead soul begins to live. 

Now, this evening I want to take up some of the Bible illus- 
trations. In the first place, there is the ark. 

There was a minute when Noah was outside of the ark, and 
another minute when he was inside. And, bear in mind, it was 
the ark that saved Noah : it was not his righteousness ; it was 



466 " WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SAVED ?» 

not his feelings ; it was not his tears ; it was not his prayers. 
It was the ark that saved him. If he had tried to make an 
ark of his feelings, or of his prayers, or of his life, he would 
have been swept away : he would have been drowned with the 
rest. But, you see, it was the ark that saved him. 

When I was in Manchester, I went into the gallery one Sunday 
night, to have a talk with a few inquirers ; and while I was talk- 
ing, a business man came in, and took his seat on the outskirts 
of the audience. I think, at first, he had come merely to criticise, 
and that he was a little sceptical. At last I saw he was in tears. 
I turned to him, and said, " My friend, what is your difficulty?" 
" Well," he said, "Mr. Moody, the fact is, I cannot tell." I said, 
" Do you believe you are a sinner ? " He said, " Yes ; I know 
that." I said, " Christ is able to save you " ; and I used one 
illustration after another, but he did not see it. At last I thought 
of the ark, and I said : " Was it Noah's feelings that saved him ? 
Was it Noah's righteousness that saved him, or was it the ark ?" 
*' I see it, now," said he ; " I see it." He got up and shook hands 
with me, and said : " Good-night : I must go. I have to go 
away by the train to-night ; but I was determined to be saved 
before I went. I see it now." 

A few days after, he came and touched me on the shoulder, 
and said, "Do you know me ? " I said, " I know your face, but 
do not remember where I have seen you." He said, " Do you 
not remember the illustration of the ark?" I said, "Yes." 
" It has been all light ever since," said he. " I understand it 
now. Christ is the Ark ; He saves me ; and I must get inside 
Him." When I went down to Manchester again, and talked to 
the young friends there, I found he was the brightest light 
among them. 

Let me take another illustration. There was the blood in 
Goshen. God says, "When I see the blood I will pass over 
you." Now He does not say, " When I see Moses' feelings, or 
the feelings of the people, I will pass over you"; or, " When I 
see you praying and weeping, I will pass over you " ; but, "When 
I see the blood I will pass over you." It was the blood that 
saved them, not their righteousness. And a little child by that 
blood in Goshen was just as safe as Moses or Aaron or Joshua 
or Caleb. It was the blood that saved them. Look ! there is 
the Jew taking the hyssop. He dips it in the blood, and strikes 



« WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SA VEDi* 467 

it on the doorpost. One minute it is not there : the next it is 
there. The moment the blood is there they are saved. God 
says, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Some people 
say, " If I were only as good as that minister I should feel so 
safe " ; or, " If I were only as good as that mother in Israel who 
has been praying fifty years for the poor and unfortunate, should 
I not feel very safe ? " My friends, if you are behind the blood, 
you are as safe as any man or woman who has been praying 
for fifty years. It is not their righteousness and good works that 
are going to save them. They never saved any one. God 
says, " When I see the blood I will pass over you." And when 
I am sheltered behind the blood, then I am saved ; and if I am 
not sheltered behind the blood, I am not saved. That was in- 
stantaneous, was not it ? God says, " When I see the blood, it 
shall be a token, and I will not enter." Death came down and 
passed over Egypt ; and where the blood was on the doorpost 
he passed by ; but where the blood could not be found, in he 
went and took the victim away. The great palaces could not 
keep out death ; wealth and position could not keep out death. 
He went and took the Crown Prince of Egypt ; he took the 
richest and the poorest, the highest and the lowest. Death 
makes no distinction, except a man is behind the blood. My 
friends, be wise to-night, and get behind the blood. The blood 
has been shed. The blood is on the mercy-seat ; and while it is 
there you can be saved. God is imputing to His Son your tres- 
passes and sins. He says, " I will look at the blood on the 
mercy-seat." Press in, my friends ; make haste and get in to- 
night ; for the Master of the house will rise up by-and-by and 
shut to the door, and then there will be no hope. 

Take another case. When Israel went over Jordan, God 
told Joshua to have six cities of refuge ; three on each side of 
Jordan. They were to be built on a hill, where they could be 
seen at a great distance, and the gates were to be kept open 
day and night. All obstacles were to be kept out of the way, 
the highway was to be kept in repair, the bridges and every- 
thing in good condition, so that nothing should hinder a 
poor man flying to the city of refuge. If a man killed another 
in those days, it was considered a great disgrace if the nearest 
relative did not take vengeance. "An eye for an eye, and a 
booth for a tooth." If a man killed another, the next kinsman 



46B " WHAT MUST 1 DO TO BE SAVED?* 

was bound to put him to death. But if he could escape to a 
city of refuge he was tried, and if it was found he had not 
intentionally killed the man, he might live. Now for my 
illustration. Suppose I have killed a man. I am out away 
in the woods working, and my axe slips out of my hand, and 
kills the man working with me. I know that his kinsman, his 
brother, is not far away. The news will soon reach him that I 
have killed his brother. What shall I do ? I start for the city of 
refuge, over there away on the hill, ten miles off. I run — and we 
are told that in those days there used to be signposts with the 
word " Refuge," written in great red letters, so that a man might 
read as he ran ; he need not stop. I have been told that there 
was a finger pointing towards the city, and a man who could not 
read might see the hand. A man does not have to learn to read 
before he can be saved. I see that hand ; it is pointing to the 
city of refuge. The gate is wide open, but it is ten miles away. 
I leap over the highway. I do not look behind, to the right 
hand or to the left. I do not listen to this man or to that man, 
but, like John Bunyan, I put my fingers in my ears. The avenger 
has drawn his sword, and is on my track. I leap over into the 
highway ; and, pretty soon, I can hear him behind me. Away 
I go, over that bridge, across that stream, up that mountain, 
along that valley, — but I can hear him coming nearer and 
nearer. There is the watchman ; I can see him on the wall of 
the city. He gives notice to the inhabitants that a refugee is 
coming. I see the citizens on the wall of the city watching, 
and when I get near I hear them calling, " Run, run ! Escape? 
escape ! He is very near you ! Run ! escape ! " I press on ; 
leap through the gate of the city ; and at last I am safe. 
One minute I am outside, and the next I am inside. One 
minute I am exposed to that sword ; it may come down upon 
me at any minute : the next minute I am safe. Do I feel any 
difference ? I feel I am behind the walls : that is the difference. 
It is a fact. There I am. The avenger can come up to the 
gates of the city, but he cannot come in. He cannot lay his 
sword upon me. The law of the land shields me now. I am 
under the protection of that city ; I have saved my life ; but 
I had no time for lingering. 

A great many of you are trying to get into the city of refuge, 
and there are enemies trying to stop you. But do not listen to 



" WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SA VEDV 469 

them. Your friends tell you to escape. Make haste ! Delay- 
not for a single moment ! 

In our country, before the war, when we had slavery, the slaves 
used to keep their eye on the north star. If a slave escaped to 
the Northern States, his old master could come and take him 
back into slavery. But there was another flag on American soil, 
and if they could only get under that flag they were for ever free. 
It is called the Union Jack. If they could only get as far north 
as Canada they were free ; therefore they kept looking to- 
wards the north star. But they knew if they only got into the 
Northern States, there might be some one ready to take them 
back. So it is with every poor sinner who wants to come to 
Christ. Many men do all they can to hinder him ; others will 
cheer him on. Let us help every man towards the north 
star. A man has escaped : perhaps he swims across the 
Mississippi river, or crosses the Ohio river in a little canoe. The 
master hears of it, and he takes his hounds and sets them on 
his track, and begins to hunt him down. The slave hears the 
hounds ; and he knows that his master is coming to take him 
back to slavery. The line is a mile or two away. He escapes 
as fast as he can. He runs with all his might for the frontier, 
over hedges and ditches and rivers ; away he goes for Canada. 
By-and-by he comes in sight of Canada. He can see that flag 
floating in front of him ; and he knows that if he can only 
cross the line before his master and the hounds overtake him, 
he will be free for ever. 

How the poor black man runs ! leaping and bounding along ; 
and at last, with one bound, he goes over the line. He is 
free ! One minute he is a slave ; the next minute he is a 
free man, under the flag of Queen Victoria, the British flag ! 
(cheers)— don't cheer, my friends, but come to Christ — and 
your laws say that no man under that flag shall be a slave. 
One minute he is a slave ; the next minute he is a free man. 
One minute it is possible for his old master to drag him back ; 
the next minute he shouts, " Free ! " If Christ tells us that we 
are free, we are free. My friends, Christ is calling to-night. 
Get out of the devil's territory as quick as you can. No slave 
in the Southern States had so hard a master as yours, nor so 
mean a master as Satan. Take my advice to-night, and escape 
for the liberty of your soul. 



470 " WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SA VEB?» 

I can imagine some of you saying ; " I do not see how a man 
is really going to be converted all at once." Let me give you 
another illustration. Look down there. There are two soldiers. 
Now, if you bring those soldiers up to this platform, and ask 
them how they became soldiers, they will tell you this — that 
one moment they were citizens, and the next minute soldiers. 
What was it that made them soldiers ? It was when they took 
the Queen's shilling. The moment they received that shilling 
they ceased to be citizens, and they became soldiers. Before 
they received that shilling they could go where they pleased ; 
the next minute they came under the government and under 
the regulations of the anrmy, and they must go where Queen 
Victoria sends them. They did not have to wait for the uniform. 
The minute they received the shilling they became soldiers. 
What made them soldiers? Receiving the shilling. What 
makes a man a Christian? Receiving Christ. "He came 
unto His own, and His own received Him not : but as many 
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of 
God." 

Now, the gift of God is eternal life. Who will have the gift 
to-night ? When I was down in Manchester I asked that question, 
and a man shouted in the meeting, " I will ! " Who will have it 
now ? Is not there some man here in London, as there was in 
Manchester, who will say that he will have the gift ? Is it not 
a wonder to have to plead with so many to take the gift ? " The 
wages of sin is death ; but the gift of God is eternal life." Who 
will have the gift now? (Many responses of "/ will"; "/ 
will.") 

I can imagine one man down there who says ; " How about 
repentance ? How about getting into the ark or the city of refuge 
before repentance ? " My friend, let me ask you what is repent- 
ance ? It is right-about-face ! I think these soldiers understand 
that expression. Some one has said that every one is born with 
his back to God, and that conversion turns him right round. If 
you want to be converted, and want to repent, I will tell you what 
you should do. Just get out of Satan's service, and get into the 
Lord's. Leave your old friends, and unite yourself with God's 
people. In a few days, if nothing happens, I expect to 
go to Liverpool. If, when I am in the train, my friend Mr. 
Shipton says, " Moody, you are going in the wrong train, — that 



« WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SA FED ?» 471 

train is going to Edinburgh," — I should say, " Mr. Shipton, you 
have made a great mistake ; somebody told me the train was 
going to Liverpool. You are wrong, Mr. Shipton ; I am sure 
you are wrong." Then Mr. Shipton would say, " Moody, I 
have lived here forty years, and I know all about the trains. He 
must have been very ignorant or very vicious who told you that 
train goes to Liverpool." Mr. Shipton at last convinces me, 
and I get out of that train and get into the one going to Liver- 
pool. Repentance is getting out of one train and getting into 
the other. You are in the wrong train ; you are in the broad path 
that takes you down to the pit of hell. Get out of it to-night. 
Right-about-face ! Who will turn his feet towards God ? 
"Turn ye, for why will ye die?" In the Old Testament the 
word is "turn." In the New Testament the word is "repent." 
" Turn ye, for why will ye die, O house of Israel ? " God does 
not want any man in this audience to perish, but He wants all 
to be saved. You can be saved now if you will. 

There is another illustration I wish I had time to dwell upon ; 
and that is about looking. There is that serpent in the wilder- 
ness. " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
so must the Son of man also be lifted up, that whosoever 
belie veth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
Look here ! Just give me your attention for a few minutes. 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." How long does it take a 
man to believe ? Or, if you will, how long does it take a man 
to look ? Some people say they believe in educating people to 
be Christians. How long do you educate children to look? 
You hear the mother say, " Look," and the little child looks. It 
does not take a child three months to learn to look. Look and 
live ! You need not go to college to learn how to look. There 
is not a child here but knows how to look. Christ says, " Look 
unto me ; for I am God, and there is none else." 

There is the brazen serpent on the pole. God says to the 
children of Israel, who are dying of the bite of the fiery 
serpents — " Look, and live ! " 

Now, there is nothing in looking at a piece of brass which 
can cure the bite of a serpent. It is God who cures it, and the 
looking is the condition. It is obedience ; and that is what God 
will have. 

One moment the poor sufferer is dying j the next there comes 



472 " WHAT MUST I DO TO BE SA VEDV* 

a thrill of life through his veins, and he lives : he is well. 
My friends, look to Christ, and not to yourselves. That is 
what is the matter with a great many sinners ; instead of 
looking to Christ, they are looking at the bite. 

It is not looking to the wound ; it is looking to the remedy. 
Christ is the remedy of sin. What you want is to look from 
the wound to the remedy — to Jesus, the Author and Finisher 
of our faith. Who will look to-night, and live ? Turn your eye 
to Calvary ; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. 



NOTE. 

The last of the revival services in London occurred on Sunday 
evening, July nth, at the Camberwell Hall. It was not, as was 
contemplated at the time the " Conclusion " was written, a 
converts' meeting ; but an address to an audience of men only. 
When, near the close, Mr. Moody asked, "Who will accept 
Christ to-night ? " large numbers of voices all over the vast con- 
gregation eagerly responded, " I will ! " "I will ! " And when, 
at the very last, those who wished to be Christians were re- 
quested to rise, a multitude — perhaps a thousand or more — rose 
to their feet ; indeed there seemed to be nearly as many people 
standing as sitting. 

A Thanksgiving and Farewell Meeting has been held this 
day (Monday, July 12th), at the Mildmay Conference Hall, 
Mildmay Park, — the building erected by the late Mr. 
Pennefather. Here a large number of ministers and Chris- 
tian workers assembled, to talk of God's goodness, and 
rejoice over the blessings of the two years' revival. Among 
the striking facts brought out, was a statement, by Rev. Dr. 
Andrew Bonar, that, in Glasgow, during the past year, seven 
thousand souls had been gathered into the various churches. 
The work in the four sections of London was reported as 
still progressing under the labours of the pastors ; " hundreds 
of whom," said Dr. Fraser, "have come into a better enjoy- 
ment of their work. The great secret of this wonderful revival 
seems to be, that, with hearty downrightness of speech, our 
brother has preached the Word of God." 



